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THE HISTORY OF A PENITENT. 




GUIDE FOE THE INaUIRmG: 



IN A COMMENTARY 



ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTIETH FSALM 



GEO. W. pETHUNE, D. D. 

Minister of the Tliiid Refonnjci ^uich CJi&jich, Philadelpiiia. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

HENRY PERKINS, 142 CHESTNUT STREET. 

BOSTON: B. Perkins & Co. 

1848. 






ft 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1847, by 

Geo. W. Bethune, 

In the office of the Clerk of the District Court for the 
Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



The Library 
OF Congress 



WASHINGTON 









rn 

TO 

JAMES W. ALEXANDER, D. D., 

LONG 

MY VALUED FRIEND, 

NOW 

THE AFFECTIONATE PASTOR 

OF 

MY VENERABLE, BELOVED MOTHER, 

AS 

A TRIBUTE OF GRATITUDE 

FOR 

HIS KINDNESS TO HER, 

AND 

A TOKEN OF PERSONAL ESTEEM, 

THESE 

PAGES ARE RESPECTFULLY 

DEDICATED. 



CONTENTS. 



Preface 7 

I. The subject opened 9 

II. The Penitent's Natural Condition 19 

III. The Helper of the Penitent 43 

IV. The Prayer of the Penitent 63 

V. The Conviction of the Penitent 81 

VI. The Faith of the Penitent 105 

VIL The Conduct of the Penitent 129 

VIII. The Exhortation of the Penitent 155 

IX. The Exhortation of the Penitent — continued. 177 
X. The Exhortation of the Penitent. — Religious 

Profession 195 

XI. The Exhortation of the Penitent. — Religious 

Example 219 

XIL The Exhortation of the Penitent. — Religious 

Conversation 245 



PREFACE. 



This little book has not been printed, because there is 
any lack of better treatises, having- a similar aim; but, 
as, when many preachers discourse upon the same text, 
God often blesses a weaker sermon where a stronger has 
failed, the author hopes for a like influence sometimes to 
accompany his pages; and that it may, asks the reader's 
prayers. 

His view of the Psalm, though differing from that taken 
of it by those Commentators who confine its scope to a 
believer's experience in afSiction, he thinks is justified by 
the analysis given. His purpose has been, to help the 
inquiring soul and the young Christian, with counsel 
taken immediately from the unerring Word. He has, 
therefore, studied conformity to Scripture, rather than 
novelty of thought, and plainness more than grace of 
style; allowing himself a diffuseness, in some cases 
almost tautological, tliat, by repeated emphasis, he 
might impress weighty truths, which a more elegant 
conciseness would have failed to fix upon the mind. It 
was a remark of his sainted grand-mother (Mrs. Isabella 



8 PREFACE, 

Graham), that "those religious writers are the most 
edifying-, who have the most italics,'''' alluding to the cus- 
tom printers then had of distinguishing quotations from 
the Bible by that type ; and it is a fond, but not unwar- 
ranted theory of his, that the more Scripture we use 
aptly, the more inspiration we have. There is a peculiar 
blessing upon the words, "spoken by holy men of old as 
they were moved by the Holy Ghost," which does not 
forsake them, when transferred to the uttered sermon, or 
the evangelical essay. Hence, every position taken in 
the following chapters, is backed by cited Scripture; the 
reference to which is carefully given, ihat those disposed 
to the search, may know the place of each text, and 
ascertain its exact meaning from the connexion in which 
it stands; a practice fraught with many advantages. 

Nothing now remains for him, and his excellent Chris- 
tian brother, the publisher, but to commit the book, under- 
taken from an humble desire of usefulness, to the provi- 
dence of Him, who, as the Head of his Church, is Head 
over all things, in the hope, that, like bread cast upon the 
waters, it may be found after many days. 

Philadelphia, December, 1847. 



THE HISTORY OF A PENITENT SOUL. 



THE SUBJECT OPENED. 

'^ As in water face answereth to face, so," saith 
the Wisdom, "answereth the heart of man to 
man," No one man is so like himself, as all men 
are like each other. There are particular traits 
to mark the individual, but one true definition of 
man embraces all men. A man may be incon- 
sistent with himself, but never w^th human nature. 
We are all children of the same family. Hence 
there are two methods of becoming acquainted 
with ourselves, the study of ourselves, and the 
study of other men. When Massillon was asked 
how he, who had lived all his life so secluded 
from the woyld, had gotten so nice a knowledge 
2 



10 THE SUBJECT 

of human nature, he answered, *' By the study of 
my own heart." Another good man, seeing a 
criminal carried past to the gallows, cried out, 
*' There, but for the grace of God, go I myself." 
We may see all men in ourselves, and ourselves 
in every man. 

For this reason, the Bible contains not only 
doctrine and precept, and promise, but also many 
histories of men, especially of the pious, not hesi- 
tating to acquaint us with their errors, as Abra- 
ham's lie, Jacob's meanness, David's adultery, 
and Peter's blasphemy; showing also their chas- 
tisements, repentings, and deliverances, that the 
believer of every age may know that the best 
saints were sinners, and thus learn to distrust 
himself because of his weakness, while he trusts 
in God notwithstanding his weakness, being cau- 
tious in his strength, and hopeful in his infirmity. 
We have one example that is perfect, the life of 
Jesus in the midst of temptations, to teach us what 
the believer ought to be; very many that are 



OPENED. 11 

faulty, to teach us what we are ever in danger of 
being; in a word, that our nature is only evil, and 
that goodness can come only of grace. 

Yet we cannot always discover from a man's 
outward circumstances and conduct, his inner 
thoughts, and heart-experience, w^here, indeed, the 
springs, principles and motives of actions all lie. 
Man is not what he seems, but what he is within. 
Wherefore, the Holy Ghost moved holy men of 
old to wTite their inner thoughts, and heart- 
experience, for our learning; and, as they did so 
under the strong impulse of the Spirit of Truth, 
which searcheth all things, they have laid bare to 
our view the man within them, truthfully and 
without reserve. The Book of Psalms is a most 
precious and full collection of prayers, medita- 
tions and praises, expressive of all the emotions 
which a believer can feel in this life. This gives 
them their excellent power and aptitude and 
sweetness, for while they contain many things 
besides, especially prophetic revealings of the 



12 THE SUBJECT 

Messiah, they supply to believers an inspired 
manual of devotional thought and language, that 
we may never be at a loss for words in which to 
express cur emotions, or for rules to guide us in 
our thoughts.* As they were the liturgy of the 
Jewish church, so they are of the Christian, a 
book of Common Prayer and Praise, provided by 
God himself, in which every sin-troubled, Christ- 
trusting, heaven-hoping soul, may find his own 
experience precursed, and the very words that he 
wants written down for his use. For there is 
nothing of religion that may not be learned from 
the Psalms.f It is an open treasury of all good 
lessons;:}: a paradise in which grow all manner of 
fruits ;§ the fountain waters of salvation flowing 
through the limbecks of David that we may draw 
them with joy;|| a clear mirror in which the 
believer may see his own soul ;1I a living anatomy 

* Tertullian. t Augustine. 

t Basil. § Athanasius. 

II Jeremy Taylor. ^ Luther. Franck. 



OPENED. Ifi 

of all our spiritual being, by which the Holy Ghost 
shows us all the exercises of our hearts, our sor- 
rows and griefs, our fears and our doubts, our 
hopes, cares and anxieties, in a word, whatever 
agitates and moves us,* 

The more a Christian grows in the knowledge 
of the divine life, the more he loves the Psalms; 
they are the milk of his infancy, the counsels of 
his youth, the solaces of his age. In them the 
Lord his Shepherd leads him to the greenest pas- 
tures, the coolest and most quiet waters. While 
he has this golden book, this epitome of all Scrip- 
ture,t his table is ever furnished with pleasant 
food, his cup runs over with the wine of the king- 
dom, and an excellent oil is poured upon his head. 
" Is any afflicted?" says the Apostle James, <' let 
him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms." 
Prayers and psalms are both supplied in the one 
book. In them we worship, we pray, and sing 

* Calvin. 

t Arma juvenum, parva Biblia, tribulatorum solatia. 



14 THE SUBJECT 

with the church of all ages. They have been the 
songs of every pilgrim, and they will be sung 
until the new song of heaven shall employ all the 
tongues of the redeemed. 

Among the Psalms there are some more fre- 
quently adapted to our meditations than others, 
because more consonant with our ordinary expe- 
rience. The cxxxth is one of these. In its brief 
compass we have a complete history of a peni- 
tent's life, nor can we study it to the end without 
having gone through all the articles of our creed 
in the order of Christian education, the heart- 
learning of the truth. 

To a meditation on this most admirable com- 
pend let me invite you, fellow-sinner, and, (I 
trust,) fellow-Christian. Let me be to you rather 
as a companion than a guide. The Scriptures are 
most perilous to the presumptuous and arrogant. 
So far from pretending to know all, I have passed 
over but a very little part of the way in which 
God leads his people, and that the plainest and 



OPENED. 15 

most beaten. Yet, even my little experience may 
be of some service to another. There may be 
those who see more in this Scripture than I. All 
have not the same degree of light. We can give 
only as God has given us; but that shall be my 
endeavour. God alone can teach perfectly.. Let 
us ask him to teach us. 

THE PRAYER. 

O Father of lights, shining in the face of thy 
Son Jesus Christ, give us, according to thy pro- 
mise, liberally of that wisdom which cometh down 
from above, that so we may, by thy Holy Spirit, 
be delivered from all blindness of heart, presump- 
tion, and slavish fear. Convince us of our sin 
and its extreme misery. 'Reveal unto us, as thou 
dost' not unto the world, the redemption which is 
in Christ Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life, 
by whom alone we can come unto thee. Grant 
us grace to serve thee, and wait upon thee at all 
times with gladness and reverence, ever desiring 



16 THE SUBJECT 

the safety of thy presence, and the coming of thy 
glory; and not only in us, but in all thy people 
shed abroad thy truth, that we may never more 
doubt the fullness or the freeness of ihy mercy, 
even unto the perfect redemption by Jesus Christ 
our Lord. For his sake hear our cry, and let 
thine ears be attentive to the voice of our suppli- 
cations. Amen. 

THE ORDER. 

The order of the Psalmist's thoughts will direct 
our own. 

First : The condition of the penitent. 

In '' the depths." 

Secondly : The Helper of the penitent. 

'' The Lord Jehovah." 

Thirdly : The prayer of the penitent. 

A cry, earnest, persevering, expecting. 

Fourthly: The conviction of the penitent. 

'' If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O 
Lord, who shall stand?" 



OPENED. 17 

Fifthly ; The faith of the penitent. 

*' There is forgiveness with thee, that thou 
mayest be feared." 

Sixthly: The conduct of the penitent. 

" I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and 
in his word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the 
Lord more than they that watch for the morning ; 
I say, more than they that watch for the morn- 
ing." 

Seventhly : The exhortation of the penitent. 

"Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the 
Lord there is mercy; and with him there is plen- 
teous redemption. And he shall redeem Israel 
from all his iniquuies," 



ir. 

THE PENITENrS NATURAL CONDITION. 



" Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, 
Lord." 

" The depths." He cries as from a miry gulf 
into which he sinks, and must be swallowed up if 
no help come. This figure is frequent in the 
Psalms. Thus: " Save me, O God, for the wa- 
ters are come in unto my soul" (Psalm Ixix. 
1, 2,). "I sink in the deep mire where there is 
no standing. I am come into deep waters, where 
the floods overflow me. . . . Let not the water- 
ilood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow 
me up. Let not the pit shut her mouth upon me" 



20 THE penitent's 

(Psalm Ixlx. 15.). " Mine iniquities are gone over 
my head, as a heavy burden they are too heavy 
for me" (Psalm xxxviii. 4.). " All thy waves 
and thy billows are gone over me" (Psalm xlii. 8.). 
In another place he speaks of his " Spirit being 
overwhelmed within him" (Psalm cxlii. 3.); and, 
again, he gives thanks unto God, because he had 
'' brought him up out of an horrible pit, out of the 
miry clay, and set his feet upon a rock, and 
established his goings" (Psalm xl. 2.). Here are 
defilemenf, danger, and helplessness. Such is the 
sense which the true penitent has of his natural 
condition, because the Holy Spirit shows to him 
his sins, his guiltiness, and his corruption. 

His sins. — The first work of the Holy Ghost 
in turning the sinner unto God, is to " convince 
him of sin" (John xvi. 8.). Left to himself the 
sinner is a fool, thoughtless, inconsiderate, and 
misjudging (Psalm xcii. 6.), He shuts out God 
from his thoughts (Psalm xiv. 1.). ''There is 
no fear of God before his eyes" (Psalm xxxvi. 1.). 



NATURAL CONDITION. 21 

" He flattereth himself in his own eyes" (Psalm 
xxxvi. 2.). He tries himself only by his own 
notions, the conduct of his fellow men, or the rtiles 
of the world (2 Cor. x. 12.). If he thinks of the 
law of God at all, it is with a very partial and dim 
perception of its spirit and extent (Rom, vii. 9.). 
He fancies that it may be kept without an entire 
surrender of his heart (Matt, xix, 20, 21,), and he 
readily excuses himself for any transgression, 
calling his sins little sins, and is at his ease, say- 
ing, I have done no evil (Prov. xxx, 20.), If he 
would but honestly consider the character of God 
(Job xxii. 15.), the perfection of his law (Psalm 
cxix. 96.), and his own inner heart, he could not 
fail to be convinced of sin (Rom. vii. 9.); but 
inconsideration is ever the effect of sin (Isaiah 
i. 3.). He will not think, will not look into the 
mirror of the law of liberty (James i, 22-25.). 
He shuns retirement and solitude, that in the whirl 
of gaiety, or the pursuit of wealth, honour or 
carnal knowledge, he may hide himself from him- 



22 THE penitent's 

self (Matt. xiii. 22.). He is in a constant deli- 
rium, which if not broken by power from on high, 
will go with him to his grave (Eccles. ix. 3.). 

The blessed Spirit, intent upon the sinner's sal- 
vation, by various means, as affliction, an unusual 
providence, a sick bed, or a startling sermon, per- 
haps a text of Scripture, a page in a good book, 
or a pious friend's advice, compels him to think. 
Then He brings before the sinner's soul the holy 
majesty of God. With the grandeur of the Crea- 
tor, He abashes the sinful creature into the dust ; 
with the purity of the Divine character. He dis- 
covers the utter iniperfection of any human right- 
eousness; with the goodness of the Almighty 
Giver, He condemns as base ingratitude the sin of 
forgetting him; with the sternness of his justice, 
the scrutiny of his omniscience, the irresistible- 
ness of his power, He takes away all hope of 
paltering with him, eluding him, or resisting him, 
God reveals himself as a consuming fire. 

He applies to the conscience of the sinner the 



NATURAL CO^^DITIO^^ 23 

holy law of God: First, in its vast scope and all- 
engrossing demands. '' Thou shalt love the Lord 
thy God, with all thy heart and with all thy soul, 
and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength ;" 
"and thy neighbour as thyself" (Mark xii. 29, 
30, 31.). Who can stand this test? Who has 
loved God with all his affections, and with all his 
faculties, and with all his understanding, and with 
all his energies? Who has meted to his nelghbour 
as he would have his neighbour mete to him 
again? Then, the law is applied in its particulars. 
The sinner sees his sins against God immediately, 
his idolatry of the creature, his unspiritual notions 
of religion, his profanation of God's name, his 
breaches of the Sabbath, his neglect of Divine 
worship; and his sins against God as committed 
against his fellow men, his violation of social 
duties, his hatred and lust of revenge, his impu- 
rities of thought and overt act, his grasping after 
undue gain, his uncandid concealments, slanders, 
tale-bearings or untruths, his covetous envyings or 



24 THE penitent's 

jealous rivalries. Instances of some or all these 
sins rise to his rennembrance, especially the beset- 
ting sins, to which from temperament, or circum- 
stances, or habit, he is peculiarly subject. All his 
dreams of righteousness are now dissipated. He 
can see no good in himself. There is no sound- 
ness in him. The tremendous penalty of the law 
against him who breaks even the least of God's 
commandments, the sentence of eternal death, the 
fiery wrath of God for ever, shows him God's 
estimate of his sins. He feels the wrath of God 
abiding on him. 

Then the Holy Spirit reveals the holy mercy of 
God; his provision of grace, but his refusal to 
save except by the righteousness of his own Son ; 
his giving that Son to die in the sinner's stead, 
but his infliction upon the Surety of the full weight 
of our chastisement; his readiness to justify, but 
his justification of none who do not submit them- 
selves to the rule of Christ; his delight in pardon- 
ing, yet never pardoning when the sanctifying 



NATURAL CONDITION. 25 

Spirit is resisted and quenched. Yes! the keenest 
pangs of repentance are shot through the soul 
from the cross of Christ, the sinless Sufferer, for 
the sinner's transgressions; the bitterness of his 
agonies awaken the penitent's bitterest sorrows; 
and in the bloody sweat he sees the crushing 
weight of that punishment which he deserves. 
He reproaches himself as without excuse, as 
utterly ungrateful and base for having so long 
despised the love of the Father who gave his Son, 
the love of the Son who gave his life, and the 
love of the Spirit by whom the good news, so 
long neglected, was brought to his soul. 

Thus is he in the depths because of his sins. 
He bemoans himself as very sinful. - None could 
be more sinful, he thinks, than himself. He 
knows so much more of his own heart than 
the hearts of others, that he accounts himself the 
very chiefest of sinners. He thinks of the height 
of God's holiness, and then he sees how deeply 
he has sunk, how very far gone from righteous- 
3 



26 THE pejs'itent's 

ness he is. He feels that every precept of the law 
sinks him deeper and deeper. Even the love of 
Christ reveals how utterly vile he must have 
been to need such a Saviour, and because he has 
neglected that Saviour so long, he fears that he 
may have sunk too low even for mercy. He cries 
unto the Lord from the very depths of his soul, 
because from the depths of sin. 

His guiltiness. The sinner untaught by the 
Holy Ghost, though he may be warned of God's 
just wrath against sin, and of the eternal doom he 
has pronounced against the sinner, can never be 
brought to see his desert of such punishment. He 
yet will fancy that God is such another as him- 
self, and will not be so unrelenting or exacting, 
as to send a soul away into eternal misery for 
such trifling transgressions. But the Holy Spirit 
convinces him of his guilt by the same method. 

The penitent acknowledges that God is right. 
The Holy One has threatened eternal death, and it 
must be the sinner's due. The merciful, the good, 



NATURAL CONDITION. 2i 

and the loving God, has threatened eternal death; 
and what must be the guiltiness of sin which 
wrung such a sentence from His lips who com- 
manded life? Sin committed against One so 
infinitely worthy of all adoration, love, and ser- 
vice ; committed too by the creature he made, 
with the strength he gave, while he held the sin- 
ner up and blessed him with bounty, set his 
statutes as guides before his feet, and invited him 
to favour, peace and honour; such sin, by such a 
creature, against such a Lord, must be guilty 
beyond measurement or thought. 

It is not one commandment, but many, that the 
penitent has broken, and that not once but often, 
nay, continually ; and yet how wise are those com- 
mandments, and how ynd the care that revealed 
them! How just that we should so serve God! 
How admirably adapted to secure our present and 
eternal happiness! How necessary to the order 
of the Divine government, and to peace on earth- 
What an incalculable train of good may be pre- 



28 THE penitent's 

vented by our transgression? What an incalcu- 
lable train of evil may be laid by the same trans- 
gression ! How certainly will the corruption that 
sin has wrought in our natures, urge us on to 
the constant and perpetual accumulation of fresh 
guilt! Thus does the penitent ratify God's sen- 
tence against himself, and acknowledge himself 
in the lowest depths of guilt. 

But all remaining doubt of his deserving that 
fearful penalty which God has pronounced upon 
the sinner, must be taken away when he looks 
upon Christ and his atoning work. Then he 
beholds the very advocate, the devoted friend, the 
Saviour of the sinner, bowing his vicarious head 
in lowly acknowledgment, that "the wages of sin 
is death." Jesus never pleads for the sinner's 
pardon, except upon the ground of his own obe- 
dience even unto the death of the cross. He never 
offers salvation, except to those who accept his 
sacrifice as due to justice for them. He, after all 
his sufferings, abandons to fiery wrath the soul 



NATURAL CONDITION. 29 

that will not repent. None can escape who do not 
. acknowledge themselves guilty as God declares 
them to be. O what depths of guilt are those to 
which Christ stooped for the sinner's rescue! How 
much deeper is that impenitent hardness of heart, 
which even the mercy of Christ will not reach! 

His co?*ruption. — The sinner in his blindness, 
even though he may have some occasional pangs 
of conscience, and dread of God's wrath against 
him as a sinner, is yet fond of denying that he is 
altogether corrupt. His sins, he persuades him- 
self, are induced by the force of circumstances, the 
suddenness, the subtlety, or the strength of temp- 
tation ; and though at times he makes the w.eak- 
ness of human nature an excuse, he yet believes 
that, if he chose, he has strength enough to resist 
temptation and lead a good life, as if his sins were 
occasional, but his moral strength sound at the 
heart. 

The true penitent deplores the corruption of his 
whole nature. He mourns his overt acts of sin 



so THE penitent's 

chiefly because Ihey indicate the absence of good 
principle within. It is the departure of his heart 
from God, that excites his deepest contrition. He 
proposes, he endeavours to live holily and godly, 
but in vain. There is a constant flow of evil from 
within him. Nothing comes from his heart but 
sin. He '' must be born again," his nature must 
be entirely renewed, he must have strength from 
on high, or he will sink deeper and deeper in the 
mire " where there is no standing." There can 
be no salvation for him, if he be not saved from 
his sins by a higher power. 

This he feels the more, the more he considers 
the character of God. How shall he, all polluted 
as he is, dare to offer himself as God's servant? 
How utterly incompetent he is to render an obe- 
dience fit to appear in the Divine sight, which 
looks in upon the heart and takes account of every 
thought and every motive? He cries out with 
David unto the Lord: " I acknowledge my trans- 
gression, and my sin is ever before me. Against 



NATURAL CONDITION. 31 

thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in 
thy sight; that thou mightest be justified when thou 
speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, 
I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother 
conceive me" (Psalm li. 3-5.). And his petition 
is nothing less than, " Create in me a clean heart, 
O God, and renew a right spirit ^vithin me. Cast 
me not away from thy presence, and take not thy 
Holy Spirit from me" (Psalm li. 10, 11.). 

The purity and breadth of God's command- 
ments destroy all hope of his ever being able to 
keep them by his own strength ; and yet he knows 
that he ought to keep them. He desires earnestly 
to keep them; but in the most zealous attempt, he 
discovers his utter weakness. He can be satisfied 
with nothing less than the perfect holiness which 
they require, and that perfect holiness is in strong 
contrast to his halting, stumbling, broken endea- 
vours. Like one in quicksand or deep mire, his 
strugglings to get free seem but to sink him 
deeper. 



82 THE penitent's 

Nay, the very salvation which is in Christ Jesus, 
until he is able to grasp it for his rescue, presses 
him down. For the gospel is preached to " the 
lost." It declares that, " when we were without 
strength, Christ died for the ungodly" (Rom. 
V. 6.) ; that, by the law no flesh living can be justi- 
fied (Rom. iii. 20.) ; that, we are all by nature 
dead in trespasses and sins; that none can be 
saved, except they be washed, sanctified, and justi- 
fied in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the 
Spirit of God (1 Cor. vi. 11.). How entire must 
be the corruption of that nature which cannot be 
cleansed by any less means than the priceless 
blood of Jesus! How impotent for good when it is 
dead in trespasses and sins! How utterly depen- 
dent upon Divine grace, when only the creating 
energy of the Almighty Spirit can give it any life 
or strength ! Thus the penitent cries unto the 
Lord out of the depths of his corruption, hopeless 
of deliverance by his own efforts, those very efforts 
increasing his fears. 



NATURAL CONDITION. 33 

These are the depths out of which the penitent 
cries unto God. 

In this "horrible pit and miry clay" are we all 
plunged by our sins, guilt, and corruption; but, 
though all must pass through the slough, some 
are involved in it more deeply and longer than 
others. 

Those who have been early and well instructed 
in Christian doctrine, when, by the merciful seve- 
rity of God, they are cast into these depths, know 
what such distress means. They know the way 
of deliverance. They are not so startled as if it 
were altogether new to them. The Scriptures, in 
their memory, come to their help. They answer 
their own cry, *^ What must I do to be saved?" out 
of the gospel. The unhappy soul, whom no kind 
parent, nor pious teacher, has instructed in the 
way of life, or who has shut his ears against all 
instruction, is confounded by the utter and terrible 
novelty of his condition, and despairs of help be- 
cause he knows not of any. 
4 



34 THE penitent's 

Those who have long sinned against light, and 
resisted the striving of the Spirit of God, or have 
given themselves up to degrading pollutions or 
blasphenaous impiety, are usually made to feel 
these horrors of conscience the more severely. 
They are really more vile, more guilty, more 
polluted. Their pride, which was so obstinate, 
must be thoroughly broken, their corruption more 
severely chastised, that in their future life they 
may walk more humbly, more dependently, more 
cautiously. As they have more pollution to be 
burned away, the fire that cleanses them must be 
fiercer and burn longer. 

Those who at once believe wholly upon the 
Lord Jesus Christ, and accept the new heart from 
God's Spirit by a simple faith, as did the gaoler at 
Philippi, like him at once receive deliverance. 
But the sinner, who, though partly persuaded of 
his sins, yet clings to some hope of deliverance 
by his own strength, or proposes to himself some 
reformation before he comes to Christ ,* in a word, 



NATURAL CONDITION, 85 

is not willing to trust Christ and his Spirit for all 
that he needs, or so doubts the simple gospel, that 
he dreams of some unusual method of deliverance 
and assurance, will be plunged again and again 
deeper and deeper in the miry depths, until, his 
heart being empty of all hope besides, the hope 
in Christ enters and reigns alone, that Christ may 
have all the glory of being all in all. 

Although these depths of distress are always 
found at the beginning of a penitent's life, it by 
no means follows, that, having been once deli- 
vered, he may not fall into them again, and even 
many times. For the penitent, even after having 
been brought unto faith in Christ, is still a sinner, 
compassed about with a body of sin and death, 
until he reaches heaven. He is upheld by Divine 
grace alone. 

If, therefore, he become careless of his walk, 
negligent of the means of grace, above all of secret 
prayer and the study of God's own word; if he 
omit known duties, and allow himself to commit 



S6 

known sins; if he be covetous of the world's goods, 
which is idolatry; or fond of the world's pleasures, 
which is folly; or aim at the world's applause, 
which is enmity against God ; if he be uncharita- 
ble in his judgment of his brethren, harsh or un- 
forgiving, unwilling to bestow upon another's 
need; then does God in his fatherly discipline, 
take away from him the joys of his salvation, and 
the upholding of his free Spirit. He causes him 
again to see the '' hole of the pit from whence he 
was digged," the sin, the guilt, and the corruption 
of his nature, that afterwards he may remember 
he is nothing in himself, and keep low at the 
throne of grace " that he may obtain mercy and 
find grace to help in time of need." 

If, though zealously active in all the outward 
duties of religion, and especially in advancing the 
cause of God, he yet presumes upon his own 
strength, and relies upon means and instruments, 
forgetful of the ever necessary though unseen help 
of the Spirit of God, which alone is efficient, then 



NATURAL CONDITION. 37 

does God take away that Spirit, that he may dis- 
cover in the darkness, the beauty of the light; in 
his prostration, the need of Divine upholding; in 
his errors, that God's guidance is best; in his 
failures, that God only can give the increase. 

There are also some moral temperaments that 
need repeated and severe checks and chastise- 
ments, but when disciplined become most service- 
able to the church. Thus the strong sinner Js 
often converted into the stronger saint. How 
often was Jacob scourged to cure him of his 
worldliness! How lowly and cautiously David 
walked after he had been permitted to fall into sin, 
and to struggle in these depths! He was very 
dear to God, but how often do we find him 
in the deep waters ! Compare Peter in his epis- 
tles, the sufferer, meek, patient, and relying only 
upon God, with the heady, rash, and self-con- 
fident Peter we find in the gospels! Paul, too, 
how he cries out at times in the depths of his dis- 
tresses, distresses almost as deep as his darkness 



38 THE penitent's 

before Ananias found him ! The steel that takes 
the keenest edge must be held closest to the stone. 
The hardest wood makes by long attrition the 
most polished shaft. God uses keen and polished 
weapons. The brightest martyrs come through 
the whitest flames. 

Would we, therefore, escape from the depths 1 
Let us trust Christ at once, wholly, and at all 
times. Let us ever walk softly and humbly. Let 
us give up ourselves entirely to his will, and find 
all our life in living by him, with him, for him, 
and to him. 

Be not, my fellow sinners, cast into despair, 
because you are in such depths. Say not to your- 
self, that there never was so vile a sinner saved. 
You are, indeed, vile, and guilty, and corrupt. 
But out of the miry gulfs in which you now strug- 
gle, God has raised up every ransomed saint now 
in glory, and every zealous believer upon earth. 
David, and Peter, and Paul, and Mary Magdalene, 
all those whose names are sweetest to us in the 



NATURAL CONDITION. 39 

book of our comfort, were once in this miry pit. 
Yet they cried, and the Lord heard them, and 
set their feet upon a rock, and put a new song 
into their mouths, even salvation unto God. 

These distresses are the evidences of God's pity 
and readiness to save. The hardened sinner from 
whom the gospel is hidden, that he may perish in 
his iniquity, knows them not. His ears are heavy, 
he cannot hear; his eyes are blinded, he cannot 
see ; his heart is fat, he cannot feel. He is at ease. 
He says in his heart, I shall never be moved. But 
it is because God has opened your ears, that you 
hear the terrible thunderings of the law; because 
he has opened your eyes, that you see the dark- 
ness and desolation of your natural state ; because 
he has given you a heart to understand, that you 
feel yourself sinking in deep waters. Even now 
when you cry unto him, you have proof that you 
are not utterly submerged. You are not without 
hope, else you would not cry. O sorrowful soul, 
these sorrows are God's purposes. He strips you 



40 THE penitent's 

to poverty, and overwhelms you with distress, 
that you may come from the far country, think 
of your Father's house, and return to his love. 
Think not yourself forsaken because you are cast 
down. Remember there was One who plunged 
himself in deeper depths of agony that he might 
be mighty to save. Are you sick? he is an 
Almighty Physician, Are you guilty? his atone- 
ment is infinite. Are you lost? such he came to 
save. 

Neither faint, doubting one, because you are 
in darkness and see no light, or because in your 
afflictions all God's waves and billows seem to 
have gone over you. There has been a *' needs 
be" for the manifold trials through which you are 
in bitterness (1 Peter i, 4.). Only return unto 
the Lord. Seize the merciful promise stretched 
out for your help. Call upon God from the 
depths. The depths of his love are deeper still. 
Call aloud in faith, and the cry shall reach his 
ears. Where the prayer of faith is, God is. He 



J^ATURAL CONDITION. 41 

heard Jonah from the bottom of the sea. When 
Peter was sinking in the waves. He lifted him up. 
Nay, there is not a saint of his He has not raised 
from death itself. 

There is no hope in the Scriptures for those 
who have no sense of sin. Their hardness only 
argues their impiety, their atheistical doubts of 
God's purity and justice, their rejection of Christ, 
and their desertion by the Spirit. Christ came to 
save sinners, those who feel themselves sinners; 
the lost, those who feel themselves lost. All his 
saints of old, all his true people have confessed 
themselves sinners, sinners altogether, except as 
they are sanctified by grace. None ever reached 
heaven, who did not begin in the depths to strug- 
gle on to life. 



III. 



THE HELPER OF THE PENITENT, GOD. 



The Apostle speaking to the Corinthians of 
their distress on account of those sins for which 
he had rebuked ihem in his first epistle, says : " I 
rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye 
sorrowed to repentance; for ye were made sorry 
after a godly manner, {original^ according to 
God.) that ye might receive damage by us in 
nothing. For godly sorrow, (i. e. according to 
God,) worketh repentance to salvation not to be 
repented of; but the sorrow of the world worketh 
death. For, behold, this same thing, that ye sor- 
rowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it 



44 THE HELPER OF 

wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, 
yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what 
vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what 
revenge" (2 Cor. i. 9, 10, 11,). Here the doctrine 
is most clearly laid down, that repentance avails 
for the conversion and salvation of the sinner, 
only so far as it is godly, or according to God, 
If our repentance be excited and maintained by 
motives derived from the character of God and 
our responsibility to him, it is genuine, and will 
produce fruit in the careful reformation of our 
hearts and lives; but, if, on the contrary, it has 
been occasioned by such considerations as the 
world presents, it is in itself sinful, and can never 
produce holy results. Sin consists in a departure 
from God, a forgetfulness of God, or, when the 
thought of God is forced upon the soul, an 
enmity against God. The impenitent man rules 
his conduct by his own selfish inclinations, the 
opinions of men, the rewards or the penalties 
which the world proposes. He may think that he 



THE PENITENT, GOD. 45 

believes in God, and consider the assertion that 
he does not, an insult to his moral sense. But it 
is nevertheless true, that the God of the Bible has 
no paramount control over his heart and purposes, 
neither does he make God's law, because it is 
God's law, the sole rule of his life. He does not 
know the nature, the extent, or the guilt of his 
sins, because he will not consider the character of 
that Being against whom he has offended. There- 
fore, the Holy Ghost, as we have already seen, 
brings powerfully and convincingly before his 
soul the holy attributes of God, by his law, his 
gospel, and his judgments. The sinner now sees, 
that his great sin, the root of all his errors 
and his faults, is ungodliness; and that the great 
guilt of his sin arises from his disobedience to 
God, whose authority over him is so rightful and 
absolute, w^iose laws ordained for him are so 
holy and so just, whose goodness toward him 
is so tender and infinite. 

Hence the true penitent, as in our psalm, makes 



46 THE HELPER OP 

confession of his sins unto God, acknowledges his 
guilt unto God, and cries out from the depth of 
his distresses unto God, Those, who have no per- 
sonal experience of it, wonder, and often scoff at 
the deep anguish of the penitent. So different is 
his estimation of sin and of his own sinfulness 
from theirs, that they consider him under a melan- 
choly delusion. They can discern nothing in his 
conduct which should excite such bitter self-crimi- 
nation, such awful apprehensions of Divine wrath. 
But could they see God as the sinner, whose eyes 
have been opened, sees Him, as they will see 
Him in eternity and at the judgment, they would 
wonder and scoff no more; they also would 
tremble before the majesty of the Holy One, 
and abhor themselves as impious and base and 
ungrateful. The power of the Holy Spirit brings 
God so nigh, and renders conscience so quick and 
intelligent, that the penitent's soul stands naked 
and abashed before God as though the judgment 
hour were already come. He is thus shut up 



THE PENITExNT, GOD. 47 

unto God. Nothing is between him and God. 
Nowhere can he escape from God. 

None, therefore, but God can be the helper of 
the penitent. God only can understand his dis- 
tresses. He cannot reveal them to any creature. 
Language cannot express them. No finite mind 
could comprehend them. There are even natural 
griefs whose bitterness none can know but the 
sufferer, and in which we feel the utter insufficiency 
of any human sympathy; agonies with which we 
must wrestle in silence; inward condemnations 
which we would not, if we could, confide to any 
mortal ear. But there is no grief like that of the 
soul mourning for sin, no agony like that pro- 
duced by a sense of God's displeasure, no self- 
condemnation like that the sinner pronounces upon 
his soul, when he sees and feels the force of the 
Divine law. It is this grief, this agony, this self- 
condemnation, unmitigated by mercy, that make 
the hell of the lost. God does understand them. 
His holy eye pierces into the depths of conscieace. 



48 THE HELPER OF 

He who made the conscience, and now compels 
its distress, must understand its anguish. 

The penitent does not make confession unto 
God as though God did not already know all that 
he is, and all that he suffers. It is the conviction 
that God does know, yes, that He knows him far 
better than he knows himself, which makes him 
cry out in his discovered shame and helplessness. 
If there can yet be any help, it must come from 
God, for he alone, who knows the extremity, can 
apply the cure. It is vain to offer a soul in such 
a case any creature as a mediator or advocate 
between him and God. Were that creature never 
so good, never so holy, never so high, he could 
not understand the distresses for which he would 
ask relief, nor apply any balm to the inner wounds 
of the heart. God must help, or the sin-burdened 
soul must perish in the depths. 

God alone can pardon his sins. It is against 
God that they have been committed. It is God's 
law he has broken. It is God's authority he 



THE PENITENT, GOD. 49 

has despised. It is God's just wrath he has 
incurred, and which presses on his soul. He 
may be conscious of having offended his fellow 
men, but he mourns such offences most, because 
God, the Father of men, had forbidden them. 
Were the entire world to pronounce his forgive- 
ness, it would not relieve his soul from the weight 
of God's displeasure, nor silence the accusing law 
of God, nor discharge him from its penalty. No 
excuses avail with his conscience; conscience 
appeals from them to the decision of God. No 
promises of future amendment comfort him ; the 
future cannot destroy the past. Neither can he 
hope that God will accept as a servant, such a 
guilty sinner as he has been. Nor, if he might 
gather hope from a future obedience, can he see 
any strength in himself to render it. If there be 
any hope, it must be in God. Except God par- 
don and remit, he must perish. None can take 
him out of God's hands, and if they be the hands 
of an angry God, he is lost inextricably, irretriev- 
5 



50 THE HELPER OF 

ably. It is vain to bid him think that any crea- 
ture's merit or sufferings can interpose between 
his soul and God. No finite righteousness can 
cover his demerit, no finite suffering can expiate 
his guilt. If there be a way of atonement and 
escape, God must provide it. God must satisfy 
his own justice, or the sinner cannot be pardoned 
so long as it is written, " The soul that sinneth 
it shall die." God alone can raise him up. 

The penitent, soul craves more than pardon. 
He is sensible of his deep, abiding corruption. He 
has fallen so often, and sunk so low; he is so 
deep in sin, so powerless against temptation, that 
if left to himself he must sink in the depths. Were 
all his past sins pardoned, he would sink imme- 
diately again into guilt. Besides, he hates his 
sins, not merely because they expose him to the 
punishment of them, but because of their own 
vileness, and ingratitude, and offensiveness to God. 
He desires to serve God with his whole heart, 
and his whole life. Nothins: short of an entire 



THE PENITENT, GOD. 51 

holiness can satisfy the longings of his soul, the 
cravings of his conscience, or the love of his 
heart for God ; yes, the love of his heart for 
God, for, guilty as he feels himself to be in God's 
sight, he loves God, loves that very law whose 
penalties he has incurred, loves that very justice 
which pronounces vengeance against the sinner. 
Yet from these sins he is utterly unable to free 
himself. This holiness he is utterly unable to 
attain. The more he struggles, the more does he 
see himself involved, the weaker does he feel him- 
self to be. No creature can help him in such 
extremity, for what created arm can sustain the 
soul that cannot sustain itself? God alone, who 
created him, can re-create him. God alone can set 
his feet upon a rock, that he may sink no more. 
The work must be done within him where only 
God's skill can reach, and God's eye see. There- 
fore you hear David crying out not only that he 
has sinned, but that he ''was conceived in sin, 
and brought forth in iniquity," Not only does he 



52 THE HELPER OF 

pray to the Lord: " Hide thy face from my sins, 
and blot out all mine iniquities;" but also: " Create 
in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right 
spirit within me." Nay, more, that new heart 
and right spirit must be maintained : *' Cast me 
not away from thy presence, and take not thy 
Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy 
of thy salvation, and uphold me by thy free 
Spirit" (Psalm li. 1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12.). 

Who, then, but God can be the helper of such 
a soul? Who but God can understand his sor- 
rows and his wants, blot out his iniquities and his 
sins, or make his nature radically new and holy 
and strong? 

Thus our penitent in the psalm keeps his eye 
fixed upon God, and addresses God only. Pious 
critics, fond to discover all they can of the rich- 
ness of Scripture, point out three names of God 
by which the Psalmist addresses him, though the 
poverty of our language renders them all by the 
one title, Lord: Jehovah, Jah, Adonai. "Out 



THE PENITENT, GOD, 53 

of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Jehovah." 
" Adonai hear my voice. Let thine ears be 
attentive to the voice of my supplications." " If 
thou, Jah, shouldest mark iniquities, O Adonai, 
who shall stand?" Jah is seldom used in Scrip 
ture, and then seems to denote his terrible holi- 
ness and majesty : " Sing unto God : sing praises 
to his name. Extol him that rideth upon the hea- 
vens by his name Jah" (Psalm Ixviii. 4.). Before 
this holy and terrible God, who shall stand? 
Jehovah is also a name of majesty, but God's 
peculiar name as the God of Israel : " Hear, 
O Israel, the Lord (Jehovah) our God, is one 
Lord, (Jehovah)" (Deut. vi. 4.); and in another 
place ; " God spake unto Moses and said unto 
him, I am the Lord (Jehovah ;) and I appeared 
unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by 
the name of God Almighty, but by my name 
Jehovah was I not known unto them" (Exod. vi. 
3.). Adonai is best rendered Lord, intimating 
supremacy in rule, but it is also used with pro- 



54 THE HELPER OP 

phetic reference to the Messiah, our blessed and 
adorable Master Jesus Christ : " (Jehovah) the 
LoEB said unto my Lord (Adonai,) Sit thou at 
my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy 
footstool" (Psalm ex. 1.). It is, therefore, to God, 
the God of Israel, God the perfect in holiness, 
God the Messiah promised, that the Psalmist cries. 
These names had he to humble himself before as 
names by which God was known. Were God 
known to him only as the Lord of holiness, how 
would he have dared to look up and cry? But 
God was the covenant God of Israel, God had 
promised the x\donai, the hope of Israel, and to 
Jehovah, and Jehovah- Adonai, as well as to Jah- 
Jehovah, does he call. Here, then, is a glimpse 
of hope, the hope of mercy in the very name of 
the God whose wrath he fears. Indeed, had he 
not proof of his not being utterly abandoned of 
God, in the fact that he was not utterly over- 
whelmed, that his head was still above the waters, 
that he had strength enough to cry left him? 



THE PENITENT, GOD. 55 

A drowned man cannot cry, but one well nigh 
drowning may cry lustily for help. A dead 
man has no voice, his crying is an evidence 
that he yet lives. Yet he could only live and 
have strength to cry by God's preserving mercy. 
The very sense of his depths, is a proof that God 
yet pities, the cry contains an earnest that it 
shall be heard. 

From all this we may see. 

That true repentance is a transaction between 
the soul and God. The sinner truly awakened to 
a sense of his sin and guilt, and corruption, will 
not, cannot seek repose except in God. He may 
ask advice from God's people, he may be glad to 
have their prayers, but he stays not with them, 
neither relies upon them. If he stay away from 
God, he m.ust perish. He can but perish if he 
go to him. It is God only that can read his heart. 
It is God only against whom he has sinned, and 
who can pardon him. It is God only that can 
renew the nature, w^hich he once made perfect, 
but which has now fallen into such depths of cor- 



56 THE HELPER OF 

ruptlon. No help less than almighty can reach 
his case. Therefore he goes at once unto God, 
cries unto God, looks unto God. The repentance 
which drives us not unto God, is " a worldly sor- 
row, a repentance that needeth to be repented of." 
There is no true sense of sin, of guilt and corrup- 
tion in such a soul. But there is hope in such a 
repentance as drives us to Him, because none but 
He could awaken it in us. It is He who rouses 
us from a sinful nature's slumber, calling us to 
arise from the death of trespasses and sins, that 
he may give us life. 

There is in true repentance a desire to return 
unto God and his service. The Spirit that con- 
vinceth of sin is the Holy Spirit that convinceth 
of righteousness. No sinner is made to hate sin 
without at the same time desiring holiness. No 
sinner is made to feel the misery of departure 
from God, without a desire to return to God. 
No sinner ever acquiesced in the justice of God's 
anger without desiring God's love. Except we 
have this desire of reluming unto God, of enter- 



THE PENITENT, GOD. 57 

ing his service, and of enjoying his love, we may 
hate the punishment, but we do not hate sin. 
There is, indeed, no repentance at all, but only a 
slavish fear, or an unfruitful remorse. When, 
however, that longing for God, for strength to do 
his will-, and for a heart to enjoy his love, is felt 
within us, it is the pulsation of a new and divine 
life, which none could inspire but God himself. 
It is the earnest of- a perfect redemption, for He, 
who is the Alpha will be the Omega, the Finish- 
er as well as the Author. 

There is, thus, always in true repentance some 
perception and hope of the Divine mercy. The 
very names by which God reveals himself unto us, 
the very law which condemns us, " in the hand 
of a Mediator" (Gal. iii. 19.); and above all, 
the cross of Christ, which more than all con- 
vinces us of sin, give evidence of mercy even 
to those in " the depths." When we have 
in the gospel the three names of the blessed 
Trinity, the Father who gave his Son, the Son 
6 



58 THE HELPER OF 

who gave his life for sinners, and the Holy Spirit 
proceeding from the Father and the Son, we can- 
not truly look unto God and not know him as 
the God of mercy, of pardon, and redemption. 
The sinner, occupied and overwhelmed by his sins, 
may but faintly discern this cheering light ; yet 
even in his depths he feels that he is upheld by some 
strong arm. Let him look up and he shall see 
Jesus. Even now Jesus-Adonai, Jehovah our 
Righteousness, is calling to him, as the Master 
did to Mary, when in the garden she was bowed 
down, and blinded by her tears. No, sin-stricken 
soul, all despairing as you say that you are, you 
would not give up the trembling hope you have 
in Christ for a thousand worlds. If you did not 
hope, you would be in utter darkness. O, then, 
cast yourself wholly upon God. Prove his mercy 
fully. Lay hold, strongly as a drowning man, 
upon the hand Christ stretches out, and he will 
draw you forth, and set your feet upon a rock. 
But how vain are their dreams of salvation. 



THE PENITENT, GOD. 59 

who will not even think upon God? Who shut 
him out of their thoughts? Who will not allow 
themselves to be alone with him and with their 
own conscience? Who will not for themselves 
search the Scriptures, where only can be found 
the word of eternal life? How can they expect 
the mercy of God to find them in the gay world, 
the busy marts of trade, the haunts and pursuits 
of worldly men? No, let them, if they would not 
perish for ever in that death, which they cannot 
choose at times but fear, '' go to their closets, and 
shut to the door, and pray to their Father who 
seeth in secret." They may go to church, and 
talk with pious people, but until they seek to be 
alone with God, there is little hope of their re- 
pentance. 

It is only when alone with God, that we are 
honest to ourselves. The world is full of de- 
lusions. The excitement around us renders 
us more or less insane. Then we compare 
ourselves with other men, and flatter ourselves 



60 THE HELPER OF 

that we are not so bad, because, not worse, per- 
haps better than they. But in the closet, we' are 
in contrast with God, the holy law applies its 
stern test to our lives, we anticipate the judg- 
ment; and in our terror and agony of shame, 
we cast ourselves upon the Saviour to hide our 
faces on his bosom, clinging close to his protect- 
ing arms and pitying heart. There is little hope 
of the sinner who is unwilling to seek God in 
secret, and escapes from his convictions to the 
cares or the pleasures of life; but the moment 
he desires the solitude where God is, he is well- 
nigh sure to find him and rejoice in the assu- 
rance of his love. God loves the low, whisper- 
ing, sobbing petitions which are meant for his ear 
alone, and he will answer in a ''still small voice," 
the soul that so speaks to him. 

The Christian should remember, also, that grace 
can be increased only by frequent resort to the 
secret place, where grace was first sought and 
found. We cannot maintain a sense of the 



THE PEMTENTj GOD. 61 

Divine presence, except we often shut cut every 
thing which comes between us and God. We 
• must seek Him in our closets, if we would per- 
suade Him to walk with us in the outer world. 
Prayer, itself, is an abstraction from the- Invisible 
and the present, to commune with the invisible 
and the eternal. He only, who lives much in 
his closet, has much intercourse with his God, 
or " conversation in heaven." But the advan- 
tages of the closet cease, not when we leave it. 
As. the face of ^Moses shone after he had reached 
the plain, so will our- thoughts retain, for a time 
at least, the glow of divine beauty which they 
received from the divine glory; and, as it fades, 
we must hasten back -to illumine them again. 
Wherefore David says: "Thou art my habita- 
tion whereunto I will continually resort" (Psalm 
Ixxi. 3.). He looked upon. the communion of 
God as the honie of his soul. In the v/orld he 
was like a pilgrim ; when with God he was an- 
ticipating his eternal rest. He might go forth 



62 THE HELPER OF THE PENITEIS'T. 

on his necessary occasions; but soon to return 
for food, for rest, for safety, for quiet, for that 
enjoyment which " a stranger intermeddleth not 
with." As his need was continually recurring, 
so he continually resorted to the source of its 
supply. 



IV. 

THE PRAYER OF THE PENITENT. 



When in distress and danger nature prompts 
us to call for help, and to entreat it from any able 
to relieve us ; therefore, the sinner, who has 
been made to know the depths of his sin, his 
guiltiness and corruption, calls unto God, who 
alone can understand his wants, pardon his sins, 
and raise him up to new life. 

" Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, 
Lord. Lord, hear my voice; let thine ears be 
attentive to the voice of my supplications." 

This crying of the sinner unto God is, in itself, 
a gracious sign. It proves that his eyes have 



64 THE PRAYER OF 

been opened to his true condition; that he no 
longer dreams of hope from his own or any crea- 
ture's merits, but humbles himself in submissive 
dependence before the majestic holiness of God. 
For the careless soul, having no thought of its 
guilt and danger, never prays ; the self-righteous 
soul, like the pharisee in the parable, busies itself 
with preparing some offering of good works, that 
it may come unto God with thanks for having 
become better, rather than with prayers for grace 
to be made so; and the idolatrous or supersti- 
tious are fain to rely upon the prayers of others, 
or the virtue of some outward ceremony. We 
must be disabused of all such folly, before we can 
pray unto God as our only helper. So, when we 
are convinced that all our help is in God, prayers 
unto him for mercy will take the place of every 
thing else. There is an end of all cavilling and 
disputing about the way of salvation, and of all 
attempts to escape from our convictions into sinful 
skepticism, or diverting pleasures, or mere forms 



THE PEMTENT. 65 

of religion which stupify or amuse, but cannot 
cleanse the conscience. The soul sees only God 
and itself, and cries unto him heartily from the 
depths.- '* Behold he prayethi" was the evidence 
which the Holy Ghost gave that Saul of Tarsus 
had become a penitent. A dead man cannot cry 
for help. Neither can a soul utterly dead in tres- 
passes and sins, pray. 

The prayer of a sinner will be earnest^ in pro- 
portion- to his sense of need. One who believes 
himself to be- drowning in deep waters, will cry 
for help with agonies of strength ; while another, 
who thinks his danger not so imminent, will rather 
be occupied with endeavours to extricate himself. 
The soul, awakened by the Spirit of God, allows 
of nothing in comparison with eternal safety, 
"What shall I be profited," is its question, 
*' though I should gain the whole world and am 
lost at last?'' Life, with all. its pleasures, riches 
and honours, is but a trifle, an hour, a morning 
dream, compared with eternity: but to come short 



66 THE PRAYER OF 

of heaven, to He down in everlasting burnings, to 
spend eternity without God's love, and under 
God's wrath, that is horror unutterable, a fear 
which swallows up all other fear, a dread which 
blackens all seeming joy. This danger is immi^ 
nent, present, extreme. The impenitent soul, if 
he think of damnation at all, puts it after death 
in the far and undefined future. The penitent 
feels, as it were, the wrath of God already abiding 
upon him. Eternity is begun with him in time, 
except as life here is the only season for secur- 
ing the life everlasting. Nay, life is so uncer- 
tain, death so near at any moment, that he 
dares not postpone the repentance which can be 
exercised only here and now. He is condemned 
already, and it is a deep sense of actual, pre- 
sent condemnation, that makes him pray with an 
earnestness which he can have in nothing else. 

This sense of the wrath of God is the more 
distressing, because he desires the love of God 
above all things. He adores God, he loves the 



THE PENITE^T. 67 

excellence of his character, his laws, and his 
grace. The smiles of one so infinitely good and 
pure, are to him the perfection of happiness. 
Though God were to give him all things else, if 
he should yet withhold his love, the penitent would 
be miserable. His soul thirsts for God, for the 
living God. As the hart panteth after the water- 
brooks, so pants he after God. He can be satis- 
fied with nothing less than God (Psalm xlii. 1, 2. 
xvii. 15.). 

For the same reason he hates his sins and his 
corruption, which deprive him of this Divine 
favour. He longs to be delivered from them ; to 
have the assurance that his iniquity is pardoned 
(Isaiah xl. 2.), and that the work of his sanctifi- 
cation is begun. He eagerly desires strength, 
which he has not in himself, to enter upon the 
Divine service, which he loves for its own sake, 
for the safety that is in it, and for the rewards 
that follow it through grace. He is in love with 
holiness, because he loves God, 



68 THE PRAYER OF 

Th3refore is his prayer earnest. All he fears, 
all he hopes for, all he hates, all he loves, his 
whole heart and soul and mind and strength, are 
in his prayers. Hence the Psalmist says he c?'ies. 
It is the loud, sharp, quick cry of anguish, terror, 
and extreme need. It is not the composed, formal 
address, which mere decorum or form presents, 
such as. his who thanked God, in well set terms, 
that he. was not as other men; but a groan, an 
exclamation, an intense burst of feeling, not studi- 
ous of words. but truth, as the publican's: ''Lord, 
have mercy upon me, a sinner!" As his grief 
increases, his earnestness increases ; and as his 
temptations press, and his sense of danger is more . 
vivid, his ardour burns the more. He must have 
pardon, he must have cleansing, he must have 
strength, he must have God, or die. Prayer is 
his last, his only means of hope. Therefore, he 
prays with all the strength that he can. There is 
a low, sweet whisper, [dulce siisur rum) of prayer, 
in which the pious soul, full of confidence, breathes 



THE PENITENT. 69 

out its love to God, as into the ear of its best, 
nearest friend ; and there is the full, long oration 
of praise, reverence and admiring delight, in 
which the spirit, rapt with religious joy, worships 
like the angels before the throne; but the penitent 
has not reached this holy calmness, this lofty joy, 
this deep intelligence. His prayer is crying, and 
groaning, and tears, and anguish. It is the cry 
of the perishing, of the well-nigh lost. 

The prayer of such a sourwill be persevering. 
If his heart be set upon obtaining mercy, he will 
not cease crying until he obtains it. There- is 
nothing he cares for but mercy, and, therefore, 
nothing can interrupt his praying, nothing can 
draw him, much less keep him, away from the 
feet of God. Prayer Is his business, his only 
work, his whole occupation. 

In God alone is his help. To go away from 
God, to cease praying unto God, is to give him- 
self up in despair, to part with heaven and to sink 
in the. depths to hell. Where can he go for eter- 



70 THE PRAYER OF 

nal life, if he go away from Jesus? Therefore, he 
remains at the throne of grace, as a suppliant; he 
clasps the knees of God ; he clings to his last hope ; 
nor will he loosen his hold until God gives him 
pardon, or drives him away to everlasting death. 
There are many, who fancy that they have sought 
for salvation because they have put up a few sup- 
plications, spent one or two anxious hours, studied 
their Bibles for a little while, or attended some 
religious meetings in hope of comfort; but because 
they have not at once, or in a few days found the 
peace of religion, they give over, saying, " It is 
of no use, our efforts are fruitless ;" and turn 
again to carelessness and sleep. Yet how did 
they pray? Was it with the intensity of those 
to whom religion was all? Was it not only in 
the occasional leisure from worldly pleasures 
and cares? Was it not as one uses a charm, or 
a form, rather than with a hearty earnestness? 
Was it not with an impatience to get through a 
painful work necessary to escape from danger, 



THE PE>fITENT. 71 

that they might be free to go back to their cares 
or their enjoyments? Ah! if they had been truly 
bent upon salvation, truly solicitous to escape 
from sin and to be renewed unto God, truly deter- 
mined to be Christians at the sacrifice of all 
besides, they would never have given over pray- 
ing, seeking, searching for salvation. It was 
because they did not give their hearts to prayer, 
that God did not hear them. He is insulted, 
not appeased, by such partial seeking. He must 
have the whole heart, or he will have none of it. 
He saw that the idols they had loved were still 
enshrined in their affections, and, therefore, he 
refused to enter and fill them with his love and 
presence. 

Not so the true penitent. His desire for God is 
like a thirst, that grows the more painful until satis- 
fied with the water of life. He goes over his peti- 
tions over and over again. He uses every variety 
of argument. He review^s his prayers and searches 
his heart to see, whether he has not been praying 



72 THE FRAYER OF 

amiss, or in a wrong spirit. He endeavours to 
amend his prayers. He prays God to amend 
them, to teach him how to pray, to give him 
honesty and intensity of desire. He prays often, 
seven times a day, all the day, all the night, 
without ceasing. He will pray all his life, in the 
hope of getting mercy, if it be but at the moment 
before he dies; because until he gets mercy, he is 
miserable from a sense of sin, hopeless from a 
sense of guilt, and utterly without strength to do 
God's will. 

Such importunity, so far from being offensive 
to God, is a most gracious sign of his own work 
in the sinner's heart. Our Lord in the parable of 
the poor widow and the unjust judge, teaches us 
that they are God's elect, "who cry unto him both 
day and night," though often for wise reasons he 
withholds the blessing for a time.. " He spake 
the parable to the end that men ought always to 
pray and not faint" (Luke xviii. 1, 7.). You see 
the same thing in the actual history of the Syro- 



THE PENITENT. 73 

Phenician woman, who came to our Lord entreat- 
ing him to cure her daughter. At first Jesus 
appeared not to hear her, but she continued to 
cry, "Lord, help me!" Then he told her that it 
was not " meet to take the children's bread and 
cast it to dogs ;" as if she were a dog in compari- 
son with the more favoured children of Israel. 
Yet even this severe rebuff does not silence her 
prayers. She knows that unless the Master help, 
her daughter must perish, and she is willing to 
receive mercy, even as a dog: " Truth, Lord, yet 
the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from their 
master's table." Had she not persevered, she 
would never have received the blessing; but hear 
what the Master thought of her importunity: 
" Jesus said unto her, O w^oman, great is thy 
faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt" (Malth. 
XV. 2-2— 28.). None other than the Spirit of 
God, the "earnest of our inheritance," teaches a 
sinner thus to pray. 

So the penitent in our psalm. How he repeats 
7 



74 THE PRAYER OF 

and varies his prayer : '^ Out of the depths 
have I cried unto thee, O Lord! Lord, hear my 
voice! Let thine ear be attentive to the voice of 
my supplications!" He has prayed, but he does 
not give over. He will pray again. Nay, with 
an earnest boldness, yet deep reverence, he insists 
upon being heard ; he is determined that Jehovah, 
the Lord, should pay attention to the voice of his 
supplications. God loves such praying. It shows 
that the sinner is in earnest; that he values sal- 
vation above every thing, and that his hope is in 
God alone. 

Such prayers must be expecting. Were there 
no expectation of help, there would be no prayer. 
The devils, though they believe in God, do not 
pray. Lost souls in hell do not pray. They 
have no hope; and the language of their despair 
is complaint and accusation of God, and blasphe- 
my, and curses. So it is with a sinner when he 
feels only his danger and sees only his ruin. It 
is in vain that you urge a sinner in such extremi- 



THE PENITENT. 75 

ty to pray. He tells you he cannot. He cannot 
assent to the justice of God that condemns him, 
to the wrath of God that consumes him, to the 
law of God that witnesses against him. His soul 
is full of despair and blasphemy. He dare not 
look up to God, He would fain escape from 
God altogether. 

But when he hears of mercy, of Christ's atone- 
ment, intercession and power, though yet he can- 
not wholly trust the promise, he begins to pray. 
Faith is not yet manifest in him, but it is already 
working under his fears and terrors, for he says : 
" Since there is mercy with God, he may save 
even me, therefore I will pray ; since there are 
merit and advocacy, and power with Christ, he 
may perchance apply his grace to my soul, there- 
fore I will pray ; since God has commanded me 
to pray, the very command contains a promise, 
that if I pray aright I sliall be heard." If he 
pray, it is to God the Hearer of prayer, and 
through Christ, the Mediator and Intercessor. 
The very longing for mercy includes some expec- 



76 THE PRAYER OF 

tation of mercy. His perseverance in praying 
shows some hope that yet, if not now, his pray- 
er may be heard. 

He cannot look to God, or make use of the 
names of God, or enquire after examples of prayer, 
without having some intimations of God's pity 
for the sinner, of his mightiness to save, of the 
fact that he has saved and does save sinners, and 
may save him. 

God would never have put this spirit of prayer 
into his heart, or the words of prayer into his 
mouth, or set Christ before him as an intercessor, 
only to mock a soul about to perish. 

His only anxiety now is, that he may pray 
aright, with sufficient earnestness for repentance 
and faith: '' O that I might find him! O that I 
could believe! O that I might see him and come 
to him, and lay hold of his strength!" Therefore, 
he prays on, in the hope that while attempting to 
pray, he may learn to pray indeed. His soul is on 
the watch, as he says in another verse, " more 
than they that watch for the morning." It may 



THE PENITENT, 77 

be dark now, darker than ever, it is darkest before 
day, but the day will come, though it seem long 
first. The shootings of the dawn, the pale light 
along the eastern horizon, shall yet herald the 
rising of the Sun of Righteousness. This is more 
than desire. It is expectation, that grows into 
hope, and will be consummated in faith. 

Whenever, therefore, the penitent heartily re- 
solves to pray until the blessing comes, there is 
a beginning of trust, that the blessing will come. 
Despair is past, and the soul is ready for the 
avowal and petition: "Lord, I believe, help thou 
mine unbelief (Mark ix. 23.). Such a petition 
was never put up in vain. 

Let, then, every penitent soul find comfort in 
prayer. Not because there is any merit in prayer, 
or that by prayer we can do any thing efficiently 
to gain God's favour; for our very prayers are 
mingled with sin, and there is no merit in any 
thing we can do ; but because prayer is the effect 
of the Holy Spirit's power. It is the Spirit of 



78 THE PRAYER OP 

adoption, within us; God's gracious messenger 
sent to open the heart and prepare it for his own 
indwelling. 

Let us, however, be sure that we do indeed 
pray. Words are not prayer, posture is not pray- 
er; it must come from the heart, from the depths 
of the heart, from a heart bent upon salvation, a 
heart that will not give over praying, that cannot 
be denied; and above all, a heart resting upon 
Christ's merit, God's promise and the Spirit's help. 

Ceasing to pray is a most fatal sign. It is the 
evidence of death, the certainty of unbelief, the 
silence of a soul abandoning God, and abandoned 
by him. There is little hope of such an one ever 
being awakened again. He has been so far en- 
lightened as to perceive his danger; has felt the 
inward workings of constraining grace; has 
been convinced of his desperate need ; has look- 
ed longingly towards heaven, and trembled at the 
thought of hell; but, notwithstanding all this light 
and grace, and conviction, he has suffered himself 



THE PENITENT* 79 

to be drawn away by the temptations of the world, 
the backward drawing of his unbelieving heart, 
and the delusions of the tempter, from the only 
refuge of his soul, the only means of attaining 
safety. What arguments can be used with him, 
that he has not heard and resisted? What new 
knowledge can be imparted to him more convin- 
cing than that he has abused ] It may be that 
God will rouse him again, but it is nowhere pro- 
mised that he will ; on the contrary, the tenor of 
Scripture threatens, that the Spirit thus quenched 
and despised, will leave the sinner alone to per- 
ish in his guilt. 

The true penitent prays on to the end. If he 
be not heard, he prays on in the hope of being 
heard. If heard, he prays on in hope of greater 
blessings. The more he prays, the more he loves 
to pray; every answer to his prayer excites within 
him a more earnest desire. The more his sins 
press on his conscience, the more he cries for par- 
don ; the more he sees of his weakness and the 



80 THE TRArER OF THE PENITENT. 

extent of the Divine love, the more he cries for 
strength ; the more he converses with God his Fa- 
ther through his sympathizing Mediator, the more 
reverently bold he grows. He becomes skilled in 
petition, appropriates more confidently the Divine 
promises, and longs the more for the blessedness 
of beholding God's unveiled face in glory. He 
learns by sweet experience, that prayer is the 
ever availing, only availing cure for sin, doubt, 
sorrow and fear. 

— Lord, teach us to pray. Shed abroad in our 
hearts the spirit of adoption, even the Spirit of thy 
Son, that like him we may pray wuhout doubt, 
weariness or cessation, until like him we enter 
into the joy set before us, and are satisfied with 
thy likeness perfect in our souls. Thy saints 
cease to pray in heaven, only because having all, 
there is nothing left to pray for, and the unceasing 
shining forth of thy Divine glory absorb all their 
faculties in adoration. Thy Church on earth is 
a house of prayer, thy Church above, the house of 
praise eternal ! 



THE CONVICTION OF THE PENITENT. 



" If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O, 
Lord, who shall stand ?" 

The penitent from out of the depths of his sin, 
his guiltiness, and his corruption, being convinced 
that God alone can help him, because God alone 
can understand his distressing necessities, pardon 
his sins, and restore his soul unto a new life, calls 
unto God with great earnestness, importunate per- 
severance, and not without expectation of a gra- 
cious answ^er. 

The third and fourth verses of our psalm show 
us the substance of a true penitent's address unto 
God. 

8 



82 THE COJVVICTION OF 

A confessing of utter iinworthiness in God's 
sight : 

" If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O 
Lord, who shall stand ?" 

A pleading for mercy, founded upon the revela- 
tion of forgiveness^ which God has made : 

"But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou 
mayest be feared." 

We are now to consider the first. 

The penitent confesses his utter unworthiness 
in the sight of God. 

It has here the form of a question, that being 
a strong natural form of assertion well suited to 
the speaker's intensity of feeling, and his deep 
reverence of the Holy Being to whom he speaks. 
In amazement at the pure holiness of God, he 
asks : "Who shall stand?" and he refers the ques- 
tion to God the only judge. 

It is, besides, difficult to give in another lan- 
guage the exact shade of meaning in the origi- 
nal which is rendered, "mark iniquities." God 



THE PENITENT. 83 

does, as his Word every where declares, mark the 
iniquities of men. He looks "down from heaven 
upon the children of men, to see if there be any 
that understand, that seek God" (Psalm liii. 2.). 
The Psalmist says also: "O Lord, thou hast 
searched me and known me". . . . thou '*art ac- 
quainted with all my ways. For there is not a 
word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest 
it altogether" (Psalm cxxxix. 1, 3, 4.). The 
Saviour declares, that "every idle w^ord which 
men shall speak they shall give an account 
thereof in the day of judgment" (Matt. xii. 36.); 
and the apostle ; " we must all appear before 
the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may 
receive the things done in his body, according 
to that he hath done, whether it be good or 
bad" (2 Cor. v. 10.). In the Revelation we 
are expressly told that in the vision of judg- 
ment, " the books were opened, and another 
book was opened which is the book of life, and 
the dead were judged out of those things which 
w^ere written in the books accord inp; to their 



84 THE COKVICTiON OF 

works" (Rev. xx. 12.). Thus, the omniscient 
holiness of God does mark, and, as it were, make 
an account of all our iniquities. It would be 
an impious and blasphemous error to suppose 
that He, who says, he " will by no means clear 
the guilty," would overlook any sin committed 
against his pure and sovereign authority. The 
Psalmist, therefore, must mean bringing into strict 
judgment, and executing vengeance upon, all 
those who commit iniquities; as if he said: "If 
thou, Lord, shouldest" deal with us after our sins, 
or reward us according to our iniquities, " O 
Lord, who shall stand?" 

He is convinced of his utter unworthiness by 
considering 

The Judge who tries — God. 

"Uthou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities." 

And those who are tried: Men, all men, the 
best men as well as the worst. 

"TFAo shall stand?" 

God is the Judge by whom he is tried. The 
sovereign God, his Creator, his Preserver, who 



THE PENITENT. 85 

has a right to all his love, his reverence and 
his service; whom it should be his deh'ght and 
grateful choice to honour with all his powers, as his 
supreme and only Master; he it is who requires of 
him an account of all his life, his thoughts, and 
w^ords, and deeds; all his time, and talents and 
energies. If, therefore, he has come short in any 
of all these, how shall he stand? 

It is the holy and the pure God, whose com- 
mandments are exceeding broad, and w^ho will 
not tolerate even the shadow of evil. Who can 
abide his rigid and unyielding and undeviating 
justice? 

It is the omniscient God, whose eye we can 
never elude ; who searches even the thoughts and 
intents of the heart (Heb. v. 12, 13); w^ho cannot 
be deceived, and from whom nothing can be hid- 
den ; so that our whole lives and characters must 
he certainly and accurately known. Who can 
endure such a scrutiny? 

It is the omnipotent God, whose will is every 



86 THE CONVICTION OF 

where active and every where irresistible; to 
whom all beings, and all things, and all events 
are subject; and, therefore, from whose wrathful 
sentence there is no escape. When the Almighty 
rouses himself to anger and launches the thunder- 
bolts of his vengeance against sin, who among all 
his guilty creatures can stand? 

It is the eternal God, who remains ever the 
same, and who ever lives to execute the fierceness 
of his wrath upon the guilty but immortal soul, 
that must for ever suffer the inexhaustible penalty. 
'' Who shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who 
shall dwell with everlasting burnings" (Isa. xxxiii. 
3 4.)? 

Thus the penitent considers himself as in the 
sight of God. It is not of his duties to man that 
he enquires, but of his duties to God (Psalm li. 4.); 
all his duty to man being comprehended in his 
duty to God. While other men find a false com- 
fort in thinking that they have been faithful, and 
honest, and pure, and temperate, and charitable in 



THE PENITENT. 87 

their relations with men, he brings himself imme- 
diately before God; and his conscience, enlight- 
ened by the Spirit and tried by the Word, pro- 
nounces him utterly unworthy and guilty before 
God. 

While other men try themselves by the judg- 
ment and practice of the world, and, if they can 
gain the world's approval of their conduct, are 
satisfied (2 Cor. x. 12.); he compares himself with 
God's holiness, and God's law, and can find no- 
thing but condemnation. 

While other men, notwithstanding all that God 
has said (Psalm Ixxiii. 11.), will not believe that 
he is inexorably just, and that he will send the 
wicked away into everlastmg punishment (Matt. 
XXV. 46.); he acknowledges and trembles before 
the holy majesty of him with whom he has to do, 
and confesses himself deserving of that endless 
wrath (Psalm li. 3, 4.); and the consciousness 
that he has of sin, confirms his conviction that 
God '^ will by no means clear the guilty" (Exod. 



88 THE CONVICTIOIS OF 

xxxiv. 7), but that his " wrath burns to the low- 
est hell" (Deut. xxxii. 2.). 

These are the reasons, why the penitent is with- 
out hope of justification from himself, while many, 
far less pure and correct in their outward conduct 
and inner thoughts, remain with easy consciences, 
careless and, it may be, confident of the future. 

This conviction is deepened when he thinks of 
those who are tried by this sovereign, holy, 
omniscient, eternal, and inexorable Judge. 

*' Who shall stand?" All men shall be brought 
into judgment by God, but who will be able to 
abide in the judgment? There are gradations in 
the character of men, some are more wicked than 
others ; but is there one among all our race that, 
measured by God's law, examined by God's eye, 
and weighed by God's judgment, can stand? 

What say the Scriptures? It "hath con- 
cluded all under sin" (Gal. iii. 22.). All are "by 
nature the children of wrath" (Ephes. ii. 1.). 
All are children of fallen Adam, fallen in him 



THE PENITENT. 89 

(Rom. V. 12.), and dead (by nature) with him 
(1 Cor. XV. 22.). There is none that, in God's 
pure sight, "doeth good, no not one" (Rom. 
iii. 9. 10.). 

What say God's best saints? They all hum- 
ble themselves before God as sinners ; all look 
for salvation only through mercy. The Apostle 
Paul calls himself the chief of sinners, as would 
all the rest, from Abel down to the last that 
shall be born unto God on earth. 

Nay, the gospel of Christ insists, that the 
last vestige of self-righteousness be removed, 
before grace is promised to the soul. '' I am 
come" saith he, *' not to call the righteous, but 
sinners to repentance;" they "that be whole 
need not a physician, but they that are sick" 
(Matt. ix. 12, 13.). The very first work of his 
Spirit is to convince men of sin (John xvi. 8.). 
Indeed, who but a sinner can trust in the Saviour 
of sinners, all whose people must be sinners, 
because he comes " to save his people from their 
sins" (Matt. i. 21.)? 



90 THE CONVICTION OF 

Now, the use which a true penitent makes of 
this great Scripture doctrine, man's universal sin- 
fulness, is not to comfort himself, as the natural 
heart does, because he is only one of a crowd 
of sinners, and perhaps, not so bad as many 
others; nor to think, that because the depravity 
is so wide-spread, God will not be so inexorable 
as to pour out his wrath upon the race. No; 
he is convinced that the sins of others will not 
excuse his own, but that he must give an account 
of himself unto God (Rom. xiv. 12.); and he 
reads in God's word, that *' God will bring every 
work into judgment" (Eccl. xii. 14.); and that 
'' death hath passed upon all men because that all 
have sinned" (Rom. v. 12.). He is the more con- 
vinced of his own personal unworthiness, for he 
says in his heart, if patriarchs, and prophets, and 
apostles and martyrs, cannot stand upon their 
own merit, how can one so guilty and weak as I? 
If there is no hope for him as a sinner, he can 
have none. 



THE PEXITENT. 91 

From this we learn, as has been shown before, 
that there is some hope in the penitent's heart, a 
gleam of light even through this dark cloud of 
universal sin and guilt. 

"if thou, Lord shouldest mark iniquities, O 
Lord, who shall stand?" If there be no way for 
thee, O Lord, but to execute vengeance upon the 
sinner, who can be saved? Stephen and all the 
martyrs, Paul and all the apostles, David and all 
the prophets, Moses and all the patriarchs, must 
have gone down to everlasting death. There are 
none, there have been none, there can be none 
saved. God has no people from among men in 
earth or in heaven. The whole race is lost, nay, 
must have been lost from the beginning. But this, 
the penitent knows, is not so. God has been 
honoured and served, and trusted in, by many sin- 
ful but penitent souls, who have found him to be 
gracious and merciful; and vrho have left on 
record an exhortation for all who are sinners like 
them, to ''taste and see that the Lord is good," 



92 THE CONVICTION OF 

There is now in heaven a mighty host of glorified 
souls, once sinners like us, singing hallelujahs to 
the God of mercy and love. Indeed, if God only 
punishes transgressors, wherefore is it that men 
are not now driven from the face of all the earth 
to hell? "Nay," asks the penitent, "how is it 
that I am spared, that God is so long-suffering 
with so great a sinner as I am? How is it that 
He visits me with so many merciful warnings, 
stirring me up to anxiety for the safety of my 
soulj drawing me towards himself, making me 
to love him and desire his love ? Surely God 
does not mock with a false hope the soul he 
means certainly to destroy; nor would he awaken 
desires in his creature's heart that cannot be 
gratified. There must be a provision of mer- 
cy, a way of pardon for the sinner, and of salva- 
tion for the lost." Thus is he prepared to see the 
fitness and sufficiency of the gospel by Christ, 
and to rejoice in that revelation of forgiveness 
which God himself has made. The character of 



THE PENITENT, 93 

God, which at first seemed to overwhelm and 
consume him, now lightens his darkness, and 
sustains, nay, lifts up his soul. '' Out of the 
eater comes forth meat : and out of the strong 
comes forth sweetness" (Judges xiv. 14.). 

Thus we see, that except there be self-con- 
demnation, there has been no true approach 
unto God. 

The impenitent, as has been said in another 
place, remains ignorant of his sinful, guilty 
and corrupt condition, because he remains afar 
from God; so, on the contrary, when God by 
his law, his gospel and his Spirit reveals himself 
to the sinful soul, it is made, in the pure and holy 
light of the Divine presence, to see its defilements, 
which before were hidden in the darkness of ig- 
norance; and the more nearly the penitent is 
brought unto God, the brighter does the Divine 
holiness shine; and, therefore, the more plainly 
and the greater does his defilement appear. If 
this increased sense of defilement be not felt, it 



94 THE CONVICTION OF 

must be because we have drawn nigh, not to the 
God of the Bible, but to some imaginary being 
less holy, less just, and less inexorable, whom our 
sinful hearts have set up in the place of God. For 
it is impossible to bring our souls into contrast with 
the character and will of the true God, without 
such self condemnation. The oldest and the best 
Christians, instead of losing this sense of unwor- 
thiness, show by their confessions, that it in- 
creases with their divine knowledge. Not because 
they become worse sinners, for we know that the 
reverse is the fact; but because, by knowing more 
of God, they know better what sin is, and by 
knowing more of their own hearts, they know 
more of the sin that dwelleth in them. Even in 
heaven, though all sense of then actual defilement 
is taken away, and with it all the pains of repent- 
ance, the glorified saint never forgets that he was 
a sinner, and that he has been raised to bliss from 
out of the depths of sin and guilt, and corruption; 
for, as he casts his crown at the feet that were 



THE PENITENT. 95 

nailed on the cross for him, and which still 
bear the prints of the wounds, his song with 
all the ransomed host, is: ''Unto him that loved 
us, and washed us from all our sins in his own 
blood." 

So far, then, from this being a discouragement 
to the penitent, he should see that self-condemna- 
tion is the forerunner of hope. It is not a convic- 
tion of the natural heart ; that is ever self-righte- 
ous, clinging to supposed virtues, and excusing 
or palliating manifest faults; but it has been pro- 
duced by the Spirit of God bringing God nigh to 
him, and him nigh to God. He sees with more 
than natural light. God himself has taught him. 
He is not left to the delusive dreams which he has 
indulged so long, of his own worthiness or safety. 
God has not abandoned him, but has shaken him, 
until he has awakened to find himself in imminent 
danger of being overwhelmed for ever. This in- 
fluence of the Spirit is itself mercy. He is not 
forgotten or given over by the God whom he has 
offended, God's Spirit, which is the Spirit of 



96 THE CONVICTION OF 

Christ, has already commenced the work of mercy 
in his heart, for wherever He comes, He convinces 
of sin (John xvi. 8.). The Spirit is leading him 
by the same path, which all God's people have 
trodden, from sin unto holiness, from the depths 
to glory. 

For the same reasons, it is equally clear, that 
ease of conscience and self-security are most 
fatal symptoms. Those, who can live under 
God's authority, with his law in their hands, his 
gospel sounding in their ears, his eternal judg- 
ment before them, and not be convinced of their 
sin, their need of a Saviour and of a new heart, 
must truly be in a most stupid slumber, given 
up to strong delusions, with no true knowledge of 
God, their own hearts or the way of life. There 
is in them no preparation for Christ, no hungering 
after the bread of life, no thirst for the water of 
salvation, no Spirit voice calling them to repent, 
believe and live. Awake ''thou sleeper, arise, 
and call upon thy God, if so be that God will 



THE PENITEXT. 97 

think upon thee, that thou perish not" (Jonah i. 
6.)! 

Yet worse, if it be possible, is the condition of 
those, who, having been once partially aroused, 
and made to cry out for mercy, have relapsed 
into their former stupidity. They have resisted 
the Spirit. They have sinned obstinately and 
against light. They have deliberately turned 
their back upon God, and Christ, and heaven. 
They have stupified their consciences by the 
cares, or the pleasures, or the riches of this world. 
God mav never awaken them, in this life as!;ain. 
But awake they shall. For who shall sleep when 
the trum.p of the archangel and the voice of God 
shakes the sleepers in the grave; when driven 
by flaming swords of cherubim, all nations shall 
be compelled before the judgment seat, where 
the worm that never dies, and the fire that is not 
quenched, shall claim the impeni'ent for ever! 
Then, saith the Lord: "Because I called, and 
ye refused; because I stretched forth my hand, 
9 



98 THE CONVICTION OF 

and DO man regarded, but ye have set at naught 
all my couDsel, and would none of my reproof, 
I also will laugh at your calamity, and mock 
when your fear cometh" (Prov. i. 24-26.). 

O how fearful an anger must mercy turned 
to indignation be! Men are fond of supposing 
that the omnipotent, eternal God, will not stoop 
from his majestic height to punish his sinful crea- 
tures ; but he has stooped to open for them a way 
of escape from his own anger, and if they refuse 
the salvation, his wrath must be the greater. The 
same book, often the same verse, which offers 
mercy through Jesus Christ, denounces eternal 
death upon all who reject the gracious proposal. 
You must deny the whole Scripture, and es- 
pecially the gospel, if you would doubt that 
wrath unto the uttermost will not come upon 
the impenitent and unbelieving. Oh! awful wrath 
of holy God! Oh! miserable soul that must endure 
it for ever ! When the great day of His wrath 
s come, who will be able to stand? Who among 



THE PEXITENT. 99 

US can rcsist His furious power (Jer. xxi. 5.) ? 
Who can dwell with devouring fire? Who can 
dwell with everlasting burnings ? We can but 
very faintly imagine the sufferings of lost souls. 
All the tortures and pains that mind and body can 
feel here, are as nothing to the anger of the Lord 
when it is full. The most terrible images of 
anguish, gloom and horror, which the Holy Ghost 
employs to set it forth, are but faint types of that 
which is unspeakable. 

It will be the wrath of Christ, v\-hom God has 
set forth as the image and representative of his 
mercy, for Christ vrill judge the world in his 
Father's name; the wrath of Him, who hath borne 
long and patiently with the sinner, that, "perad ven- 
ture, he might repent, but will then bear no longer. 
What a flood of fiery indignation will the despised 
Saviour, then the avenging judge, pour out upon 
them who have heard of his love only to harden 
themselves in iniquity, and have presumed upon 
his mercy, defying him to his face: whose hearts 



100 THE CONVICTION OF 

have resisted the tenderness of divine compassion., 
as well as the warnings of justice? What measure 
can there be to their suffering, when the Saviour 
abandons them, nay, turns upon them in ven- 
geance? The very surprise will make his wrath 
more terrible. Even while they deafen their ears 
to his calls, and scorn his service, they yet flatter 
themselves with the hope of salvation from his 
mercy in the end. They dream that He who pleads 
with them now, will plead for them then. They 
cannot believe that He will ever cease to offer them 
pardon. Our Saviour intimates that some may 
approach the judgment-seat with hope (Matt. vii. 
22.) ; that, even when they hear the crashing 
thunders and hissing fires of the curse on every 
side, as the power of God lashes all the elements 
to rage, they may turn to the Saviour, and, remem- 
bering his former promises and pleadings, invoke 
his name of love; but when they look up they will 
see that He is himself the judge; that the light- 
nings go forth from the fierceness of His counte- 



THE PENITENT. 101 

nance; that the thunder-bolts are thrown by His 
hands. How will the sinner be abashed and terror- 
stricken at the change in that once mild, gentle, 
sorrowful face, and that sweet, sad, pleading 
voice ! How utter must be his despair, when the 
hand once nailed on the cross, and so often ex- 
tended in entreating gesture, warns him away 
to death everlasting ! 

It will be '' the wrath of the Lamb" (Rev. vi. 
16.). The name which the Saviour has from 
his meekness, patience, gentleness and slowness 
to wrath. There is no anger so great and unap- 
peasable as that of the good, who have been pro- 
voked beyond all endurance. The anger of the 
capricious and passionate, being quickly hot, is as 
quickly cold, because it has no reason or slight 
reason. The anger of the wise and good, is pro- 
voked only by grievous insult, and after being 
long restrained, dammed up, as it were, by a 
resolute will, until even conscience forces it over 
all restraints in a sweeping flood. Such will be 



102 THE CONVICTION OP 

the wrath of the Lamb. The sorrows of his 
life, the bitterness of his passion, the pleadings 
of his Spirit, bear witness to his forbearance and 
long-suifering. For many long years He has 
restrained his indignation; but then he will let it 
burst forth. Even the meek Lamb will be roused 
to vengeance. Justice demands that such crime 
be no longer borne with. The punishment of 
such sinners becomes a duty to his law and his 
empire; and the sinner will find that the mercy 
of Jesus has only aggravated his guilt and eternal 
woe. 

Then there will be no escape. Who can elude 
God's eye, or break away from his almighty hand? 
Where shall the sinner flee to get beyond the 
omnipresence of a pursuing God? What barriers 
can he raise against his approach? Where can 
he hide his guilty soul ? He may call upon the 
rocks and hills to hide him ; but the rocks and 
hills are the creatures of God, and will melt in the 
flame of his terrible presence. Annihilation would 



THE PENITENT. 103 

be a refuge; but he cannot put off his immor- 
tality, and the pangs of that death are eternal. 

Now there is an escape from the wrath of God 
in his mercy, through the mediation of Jesus; but 
then there will be no Mediator. ''There remaineth 
no more sacrifice for sins" (Heb. x. 26.). God 
has no other Son to give, that he may die for 
those who have despised his only-begotten. There 
will be no second Bethlehem, no second Calvary, 
no second Gospel. The Sun of Righteousness 
will never break the gloom of that eternal light ; 
the Sabbath will never dawn on the darkness of 
that despair. Hope will for ever abandon the twice 
lost. The sinner's worst torment will be in his 
own soul. His memory of the sins he has com- 
mitted, and the opportunities of mercy he has 
abused, will feed the unquenchable flame; and 
remorse, like a venomous worm that never dies, 
gnaw in upon his soul. 

O thou crucified One ! give us refuge in thy 
mercy now from thy vengeance then ! Our 



104 THE CONVICTION OF THE PENITENT. 

fear is upon us now; now do we feel the heavi- 
ness of our calamity in having sinned against 
thee; mock not our prayer; laugh us not to 
scorn, Thou that sittest in the heavens! Once 
more stretch out thy hand ; call once more, and 
we will gladly grasp the sceptre of thy love ! If 
thou markest our iniquities, we must perish ; but 
we trust that thou, O Lamb of God, hast borne 
them for us, and that with thy stripes we may be 
healed ! 



VI. 

THE FAITH OF THE PENITENT. 



''But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou 
mayest be feared." 

It has been shown from the preceding part of 
the psalm, and particularly from the third verse, 
that a true penitent addresses himself unto God 
with a full conviction of his utter unworthiness. 
He cannot, therefore, expect any thing from God's 
goodness, of which he is so undeserving, much 
less of God's justice, which condemns him. If 
God mark his iniquities, he cannot stand. His 
only hope must be, that God will not "mark" his 
"iniquities," or, in other words, that he will 
10 



106 THE FAITH OF 

forgive them. But what warrant has he to hope 
that God will forgive his iniquities? God is just; 
how can he pass by transgression ? He has said, 
that " the wicked shall not be unpunished" (Prov. 
xi. 21.); how can he pardon the wicked? That 
"the soul which sinneth shall die" (Ezek. xviii. 
4. 20.); how may the sinner live? That He 
" will by no means clear the guilty" (Exod. xxxiv. 
7. Num. xiv. 18,); how may the condemned be 
justified? How can mercy be consistent with 
justice? 

These are questions which mere reason cannot 
help us to answer. Reason never has answered 
them ; for it seems an utter contradiction to speak 
of a just mercy, or a merciful justice, mercy 
being the remission of penalties which justice 
imposes and ought to exact. The best of the 
classic moralists, though they applaud clemency 
and gentleness in a ruler, condemn mercy as a 
weakness, which, if not a vice in itself, is an 
encouragement to vice in others. Seneca, indeed. 



THE PENITENT. 107 

pronounces it a vice most common to the 
weakest minds, and says, unhesitatingly, that 
" no man who deserves to be punished ought to 
be pardoned, because a ruler, if he be truly wise, 
does nothing but what it is just to do" (De Clem, 
ii. 5. 7.). We find, it is true, among the an- 
cient heathen, some notion of mercy from the 
gods; but, setting aside their very false ideas 
of deity, and the miserable character of the popu- 
lar divinities, they sought to avert the anger of 
heaven by sacrifices and purifications, borrowed 
by tradition, as we doubt not, from the typical 
rite of sacrifice instituted by God himself at the 
gate of Eden. It is also common to hear worldly 
and impenitent men talking of the mercy of God, 
as if he were too merciful to punish them for their 
sins ; yet it is easy to see, that theirs is a vague 
imagination, derived from an imperfect under- 
standing of the mercy of God as made known in 
the gospel, an ignorance of God's character, and 
of their own. They hope to escape the severe 



108 THE FAITH OF 

punishment threatened against sin, rather because 
they do not account themselves to deserve it, than 
because they think God too merciful to give them 
their deserts. 

Where a soul is fully convicted of sin, as we 
see our penitent to have been, and it is heartily 
desirous of regaining the favour of the infi- 
nitely holy God, no such sophistries or supersti- 
tions can satisfy the conscience. Nothing less 
than an assured revelation of some method by 
which God may be *' a just God and a Saviour" 
(Is. xlv.), will warrant confidence in him. Thus 
the apostle in Hebrews, tells us that even the 
divinely appointed ritual of Levi, could not in itself 
satisfy the spiritual worshippers; for he says: 
*' those gifts and sacrifices would not make him 
that did the service perfect as pertaining to the 
conscience" (Heb. ix. 9.). It was confidence in 
*' the better hope," which they prefigured, that 
sealed peace upon the soul of the Jewish believer 
(Heb. vii. 19.). 



THE PENITENT, 109 

The same Holy Spirit which wrought in the 
sinner's hearty. such a deep sense of sin, guilt and 
pollution, such a sorrow for his iniquities, and 
such a hatred of his vileness, conducts him to the 
revelation of mercy made by God himself in the 
Gospel of Jesus. The soul, driven from every 
other hope or supposed refuge, is shut up to that 
only method by which God has declared that he 
will justify and save sinners. 

This gospel is briefly stated by our blessed 
Lord in his conversation with Nicodemus : " As 
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even 
so shall the Son of man be lifted up, that whoso- 
ever believeth in him, should not perish, but have 
eternal life. For God so loved the world, that 
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever 
believeth in him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into 
the world to condemn the world, but that the 
world through him might be saved" (John iii. 
14-17.). Here, according to the interpretation 



110 THE FAITH OF 

afforded by other scriptures, there are several 
things stated : 

I. It is the merciful desire of God to save 
sinners: "God so loved the world." 

II. God has appointed his own only begotten 
Son as the Saviour of sinners, " that whosoever 
believeth in him might not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life." 

III. The Son of God became incarnate upon 
earth to save sinners: '' God sent not his Son 
into the world to condemn the world, but that the 
world through him might be saved." 

IV. The provision for the salvation of sinners 
was fully made by the Son of God incarnate 
upon earth in his righteous life, consummated 
upon the cross : " As Moses lifted up the serpent 
in the wilderness^ even so must the Son of Man 
he lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life." 

V. The method by which a sinner becomes 
a partaker of this salvation, is a living faith : 



THE PENITENT. Ill 

*' Whosoever heUeveth in him should not perish, 
but have everlasting life." 

Thus from the gospel the penitent learns: 
" There is formveness with God, that he may be 
feared." Here is, 

First: The truth believed: ** There is forgive- 
ness with thee." 

Secondly : The proper consequence of faith in 
this truth : " That thou mayest be feared." 

First: The truth believed: ''There is forgive- 
ness with thee." 

In contemplating this truth, the penitent con- 
siders, the purpose of forgiveness ; the method of 
forgiveness; the application of forgiveness. 

The pwr/?05e of forgiveness. From the begin- 
ning of the curse, which God sent upon man 
because of sin, he has given intimations of his 
purpose to forgive. The fact that he did not at 
once consume man with his wrath, but bore with 
him notwithstanding his sin ; the names by which 
he revealed himself, as ''the Lord, the Lord God, 



112 THE FAITH OF 

merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abun- 
dant in goodness and in truth, keeping mercy for 
thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and 
sin" (Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7.) ; his promises from the 
first one, that "the seed of the woman should 
bruise the head of the serpent" (Gen. iii. 15.), and 
the covenant to Abraham, that " in his seed all 
the nations of the earth should be blessed" (Gen. 
xviii. 18.), with a multitude of others, great and 
precious ; the appointment of divine worship, 
showing that he might be approached by sinful 
men; and, above all, the institution of the rite of 
sacrifice, shadowing forth a great propitiation to 
be made (Heb. v. vi. vii. viii. ix. x, xi.) ; all 
testified that his counsel was of mercy to the 
sinner (Gal. iii.). These intimations were, how- 
ever, all connected with intimations, as distinct, 
of some atonement necessary ; for, at the same 
time that He declared himself merciful. He as- 
serted that He would by no means clear the guilty 
(Ex. xxxiv. 7.); the promises were of a salvation 



THE PENITENT. 113 

to come, and the sacrifices proved that " without 
the shedding of blood there was no remission" 
(Heb. ix. 22.). 

These revelations all became more and more 
distinct, until the divine readiness to save was 
made fully known in the manifestation to the 
world of Christ, the Immanuel, our only and 
sufficient Saviour. How determined must God 
have been to save sinners when he spared not 
his only begotten Son, but delivered him up for 
us all? 

Thus the penitent is awakened to hope by the 
long suffering of God, the gracious promises of 
God, and the merciful name of God ; but, at the 
same time, feels the necessity of a sufficient atone- 
ment by which mercy may be justified, until he is 
led to Christ, when he is convinced that God can 
have no pleasure in the death of the sinner, 
because he has appointed his own Son to die in 
the sinner's room; though this conviction of the 
divine willingness to pardon through Christ, may 



114 THE FAITH OF 

precede a distinct application of that pardon to 
his own soul. 

This brings him to consider : 

The 7nethod of forgiveness. It is through the 
mediation of Jesus Christ. He is the appointed 
Saviour, as his name, Christ the x\nointed, Jesus 
the Saviour, and his consecration by the Holy 
Ghost, proves (Matt. i. 21. iii. 16, 17. Is. Ixi. 
1.). He was (and, blessed be his holy name! 
still is,) wonderfully constituted to be our Saviour, 
being God as the only begotten Son of the same 
nature with the Father (Phil. ii. 6.), and Man as 
the seed of the woman, made in all points like as 
we are, yet without sin (Heb. ii. 14-18.); the 
Daysman between us and God, '' laying his 
hands on us both" (Job ix. 23.). Thus as God, 
we are assured, he is able to do all that is needed 
for our redemption ; and as Man, he is fitted to 
do all as our Kinsman-Redeemer (Lev. xxv. Job 
xix. 25.). 

He has accomplished by his righteous life and 



THE PENITENT. 115 

atoning death, a full satisfaction to the law of God 
on our behalf, having fulfilled the law and made 
it honourable by a righteousness with which God 
has declared himself well pleased, and an expiating 
death, which God has declared to be sufficient by 
raising him up from the dead. For God had 
promised that "by his knowledge his righteous 
servant should justify many" (Is. liii. 11.), and 
afterward has assured us that " he had set him 
forth to be a propitiation through faith in his 
blood to declare his righteousness for the remis- 
sion of sins that are past, through the forbearance 
of God ; that he might be just, and the justifier of 
him which believeth in Jesus" (Rom. iii. 21-31.). 
Nay, more, having accomplished his work of 
merit on our behalf upon earth (John xix. 30.), 
he ascended upon high (Ps. Ixviii. 18.), as our 
Head and Intercessor, to plead those merits, and 
to ask and receive gifts for men (Eph. iv. 8.), 
even all needed grace of the Holy Ghost (Acts ii. 
34.), that the Lord our God might dwell in his 



116 THE FAITH OF 

people; so that now all who will, may come unto 
the throne of grace, and find grace to help in 
every time of need (Heb. x. 20-22. iv. 15.). 

This, then, is the method of forgiveness by our 
almighty Saviour, yet our sympathizing brother; 
his perfect righteousness, his sufficient expiation, 
his prevalent intercession, and his omnipotent 
Spirit, to teach, sanctify, guide, strengthen, and 
defend. " O the breadth, the length, the height, 
the depth of God's redeeming love !" now exclaims 
the penitent: "There is, indeed, forgiveness with 
him, enough to cover all my sins, my guilt, and 
corruption." 

This appears the more fully, as he considers the 
application of forgiveness. It is applied to all who 
believe. There is no question about the merit of 
the sinner; it contemplates him only as lost, and 
needing forgiveness. The vilest may come and 
receive it without price. There is no question of 
his ability tg render future service; it contem- 
plates the sinner as utterly infirm, and able to do 



THE PENITENT. 117 

good works only through grace, that the glory 
may be the Lord's : *' Believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and thou shalt be saved ;" '* Only believe, 
all things are possible to him that believeth." 
This is the promise; accept Him as thy divine, all 
sufficient, atoning, interceding, Saviour, and the 
moment thou believest, thou art saved ! How free 
is this salvation ! How suited to the wants of the 
penitent soul ! 

It is applied by the Holy Ghost. He, who 
prepared the way by convincing of sin, by casting 
from the soul of the penitent every other stay and 
hope, by leading him to look, and to cry only to 
God, now works in the soul this apprehending 
faith, and opens the fulness of the promise so 
clearly, that the penitent sees, feels, and knows it 
speaks to him (Eph. i. 17, 18, 19.). The dark 
shadows flee away; the light of divine love beams 
around him (Rom. viii. 5.) ; the love of God 
through Jesus Christ is shed abroad in his heart, 
and he rejoices in Christ, *' who loved him and 



118 THE FAITH OF 

gave himself for him" (Gal. ii. 20.). '' Being 
justified by faith, he hath peace with God" (Rom. 
viii. 1.) 

It is true, he is yet a sinner, weak, corrupt, 
and ignorant ; yet " compassed about with a 
body of sin and death" (Rom. vii. 14-25.), yet in 
a world of temptations (Eph. vi. 12.); yet ex- 
posed to the malice of enemies, subtle and strong 
beyond his powers of resistance ; but the sealing 
of forgiveness through Christ upon his heart, con- 
tains in it and is itself the earnest of perfect 
redemption (Eph. i. 14. 1 Cor. i. 30.). The 
sanctification now begun, shall be carried on unto 
perfection (Phil. i. 6.). He shall have grace in 
his heart to struggle against the evil lusts of his 
flesh (2 Cor. xii. 9.); light upon his path to guide 
him through the world that lieth in wickedness 
(Ps. cxix. 105.); an armour of heavenly proof 
for head, and breast, and feet, to conquer, by the 
strength of Christ, all his spiritual foes (Eph. vi. 
13-17.); and at last, through death, be made 



THE PE^■ITE^'T. 119 

more than conqueror (1 Cor. xv. 54-57. Rom. 
viii. 37.). God who forgives him, will prove 
the fulness of his pardon by receiving him into 
a holy heaven, where he will sin no more, and 
be tempted no more, and grieve no more for 
ever, but spend an eternity of perfect love, and 
purity, and joy, in his Father's presence, at his 
Saviour's feet, and among the shining angels, 
body and soul complete with immortal and incor- 
ruptible life (Rev. xxii. 26. 1 Peter iii. 1-4). Now 
he lives no more for time, but for eternity ; no 
more for earth, but for heaven ; no more for sin, 
but unto God. " Out of the depths," he aspires 
to the height of heaven. He is forgiven; no 
more a rebel, but at peace with God ; no more an 
enemy, but a child, and '* if a son, then an heir ; 
an heir of God, and joint heir with Jesus Christ" 
(Rom. viii. 17.). 

Secondly : The proper consequence of faith in 
this truth. 

" That thou mayest be feared." 



120 THE FAITH OF 

Here is Ihe necessary and infallible sign of 
living faith in the truth of God's forgiveness. Its 
discovery of mercy ever produces a holy reverence 
for God. The very revelation of mercy mani- 
fests more clearly God's holy hatred of sin. How 
much must He have hated sin, how stern must be 
his justice in condemning and punishing it, when 
He refuses to pardon the transgressor, except 
upon the condition that his own Son should bear 
the punishment, and honour the law, in the room 
of the sinner! When, though his own Son stood 
forth in the sinner's place. He remitted not one jot 
or tittle of his law's demands, but poured out upon 
the head of Jesus the vials of that wrath due to us! 
When it was not possible that the bitter " cup" 
should pass from the lips of Him who was mighty 
to save ! O who can turn from the cross of Jesus, 
the Sufferer for sin, and not fear to sin against 
One so merciful, yet so just ; so holy, yet so kind ? 
How can any hope for mercy from God, when 
they continue wilful sinners against God? 



THE PEiVITENT. 121 

The revelation of mercy through Christ brings 
God nearer to the soul of the believer. He lives 
before God : he invokes God by his prayers ; he 
communes v>'ith God in meditation upon his word; 
he entreats God to dwell in his heart. How then 
will he dare to offend against that present, holy, 
all-seeing Spirit, whose holiness and purity is thus 
more and more apparent, as he enjoys him more 
and more through Christ ? 

The revelation of mercy absorbs the soul of the 
sinner with a grateful love. He delights in God 
as the holy God, the just God, the God who 
delightelh in righteousness; and so the true be- 
liever himself delights in holiness, and justice, 
and righteousness. It is his desire, his hope, his 
aim, to become holy, as God is holy. It is to 
him an unspeakable pleasure to worship God, to 
serve him, nay, to fear him, not as a servant, but 
a child. He is pained at sin remaining in him, 
because it offends his God, and is an unlikeness 
to Christ, whom God loves. He desires heaven 
11 



122 THE FAITH OF 

most, because there he shall serve God perfectly, 
and so he would commence heaven upon earth. 
^'The love of Christ constraineth him • . . to live 
not unto himself, but unto him who died for him, 
and rose again" (2 Cor. v. 15.). 

Nay, the Spirit of God never applies pardon 
to the soul of a sinner, that he does not at the 
same time enter his heart to fill him with the love 
of God. Thus faith, as one apostle says, '' puri- 
fieth the heart" (Acts xv. 9.), "worketh by love" 
(Gal. v, 6.); and another: " overcometh the world" 
(1 John V. 4.). This effect of faith proves its reality, 
for "faith without works is dead" (James ii. 17.). 
All other seeming faith is but seeming, a counter- 
feit, a damning delusion. 

From all this we may learn, that 

The true penitent is never satisfied until he has 
found God in Christ. If his penitence be the work 
of the Spirit of Christ, that Spirit will lead him to 
Christ. Until the blood of Christ is sprinkled upon 
his conscience, he can have no peace,* until the 



THE PENITENT. 123 

Holy Spirit has applied the promise of God 
through Christ to his soul, he can have no hope. 
He must have a Saviour whom God approves, 
or God will not accept him; an almighty Sa- 
viour, or he cannot reach his case; an atoning 
Saviour, or his sins will still cry out against him; 
an interceding Saviour, or he dare not approach 
unto God; a sanctifying Saviour, or he will never 
overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil; a 
Saviour unto the uttermost, or he will fall far short 
of heaven. All this he can find only in Christ. 

The true penitent casts himself confidently upon 
God in Christ for salvation. As he has felt his 
need of Christ, so now he sees Christ's fitness to 
save him. His regard for the holiness of God, 
the exactness of his justice, and the truth of his 
promise, will not now allow him to doubt that 
Christ, whom God has appointed, accepted, and 
revealed as the only Saviour, is able to save his 
soul, is willing to save his soul; nay, does begin 
the work of salvation in his soul. Unbelief would 



124 THE FAITH OF 

be insult to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 
To insist, or even dream of mingling any thing 
of his own with the merits of Christ, would be 
to doubt the sufficiency of God's method to save, 
and to cling to some merit of his own. He finds 
all he needs, all he desires, in Christ alone. 

The true penitent continues and increases his 
penitence after he has drawn hope from Christ. 
Repentance with him lies not in a few spasms, 
tears, and hours of anguish, at the commencement 
of his Christian life. He repents, so long as a 
sin remains to be subdued, a temptation overcome, 
or a grace to be attained. The more he knows 
of God, his love as well as his holiness, his mercy 
as well as his justice, the more does he love God 
and desire to serve him; the more is he dissatisfied 
with any degree of service he can render ; the 
more he longs after a perfect holiness. This is 
the spirit of heaven, the earnest of eternal life. 
Such a soul God certainly accepts through Jesus 
Christ his Son. 



THE PENITENT^ 125 

But what increased sin, and guilt, and danger, 
are theirs, who hear of Christ and reject him; 
who, when they naight have mercy, defy God's 
wrath ; who " trample upon the body of the Son. 
of God, and count the blood of the covenant, 
wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing?" 
How can they be saved whom even mercy does 
not reach? "He that believeth not is condemned 
already, because he hath not believed upon the 
only-begotten Son of God." Condemned ! con- 
demned of God ! Condemned for rejecting the 
only begotten Son of God ! Condemned already! 
The sentence is not against them ; it rests upon 
them. Nay, the Saviour will himself be the Judge 
to order the sentence executed. God, said the 
apostle to the Athenians (Acts xvii. 31.), "hath 
appointed a day in the which he will judge the 
world in righteousness, by that Man whom he 
hath ordained : whereof he hath given assurance 
unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the 
dead." The office Christ came to execute was 



126 THE FAITH OF 

not simply the salvation of sinners, but also the 
vindication of the divine justice. For the sake of 
' his righteousness and intercession, the execution 
of the sentence against our sinful race was sus- 
pended, to give men an opportunity of faith and 
repentance. For the same reasons, Christ has 
been exalted, and armed with all authority in 
heaven and in earth. Now he gives repentance 
and remission of sins to all who call upon him for 
the mercy which has been justified by this atone- 
ment; but when the time of this merciful waiting 
is exhausted, when, though many have honoured 
God by believing on his Son as their Saviour, 
there will yet be found many who have rejected 
the offers of lifcj and continued in sin, it becomes 
Christ as the Steward of his Father's glory, and 
the Vindicator of the law, to see that justice, long 
and mercifully, though, in the case of these obsti- 
nate transgressors, fruitlessly delayed, is satisfied. 
Had they repented and believed in Christ, he 
would have applied the satisfaction made by him- 



THE PENITENT. 127 

self to their acquittal ; but, as they would not 
accept of his vicarious merit, they themselves must 
bear the sentence upon their own souls, and Christ 
must see it executed. Their guilt has been greatly 
increased ; they have not only despised the law of 
God, but his gospel ; not only defied his wrath, 
but rejected his grace ,• made his long suffering an 
encouragement to continued rebellion, and forced 
their way through the restraints of the Spirit 
down to depths of sin, which never could have 
been reached, had not God been willing to forgive, 
and Christ died to save. The atonement itself 
would be a reproach, if the almighty Saviour were 
to permit the escape of the penitent, for then would 
Christ be ''the minister of sin" (Gal. ii. 17.). No 
crime can be greater than that of thus making the 
gospel, by which God intends, through the display 
of mercy in harmony with justice, to convert us 
from our sin, an encouragement to sin on ; and, 
therefore, will Christ visit with peculiarly heavy 
punishment, all who, because his intercession has 



128 THE FAITH OF THE PENITENT. 

prevented the sentence against their evil work 
from being executed speedily, set their hearts 
more fully to do evil (Eccl. viii. 11.). They 
might have been saved, because there was for- 
giveness with Him ; they cannot be saved when 
that forgiveness is no longer oifered ; and the 
only Saviour from the wrath of God, is the Judge 
to execute his vengeance. 

O holy and merciful Lord God, our Redeemer 
and our Judge! save us from our unbelief and 
impenitence, that we may be saved from thy 
wrath ; working in us by thy Holy Spirit, that 
child-like, salutary fear of thee, which is the 
earnest of eternal life ! 



VII. 



THE CONDUCT OF THE PENITENT. 



*' I wait for the Lord ; my soul doth wait ; and 
in his word do I hope. 

*' My soul waiteth for the Lord, more than they 
that watch for the morning; I say, more than 
they that watch for the morning." 

" I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw 
all men unto me" (John xii. 32.), said the Sa- 
viour; and, adds the Evangelist: "this he said, 
signifying what death he should die." But the 
Master had declared on a previous occasion: "No 
man can come unto me, except the Father which 
hath sent me, draw him." Thus we are clearly 
12 



130 THE CONDUCT OF 

taught, that the true penitent is drawn, not driven, 
unto God ; that the great attractive of the soul to 
God, is the manifestation of God's forgiveness 
through Christ crucified; and that it is nothing 
less than Divine Power, which so manifests the 
forgiving love of God through Christ crucified, as 
as to draw the soul irresistibly, yet sweetly, 
unto himself. Except, therefore, the sinner be 
drawn unto God, he is not truly penitent ; but, if 
he be drawn unto God, he has certain proof of 
having been effectually called through faith in 
Christ Jesus unto eternal life. The conduct of the 
penitent in our psalm illustrates these doctrines. 

We have seen him raised, by the grace of the 
Holy Ghost, " out of the depths" of his sin, guilt 
and corruption, even while convinced of his utter 
unworthiness, to a confident though humble faith 
in the forgiveness which is with God. But so 
far from relapsing into cold indifference because 
pardon is revealed ; so far from continuing in 
wilful sin, because grace abounds (Rom. vi, 1, 2); 



THE PENITENT. 131 

SO far from faith in a free, unmerited, and unpur- 
chaseable salvation, encouraging him to a careless 
or licentious practice, (as the revilers of justifica- 
tion by faith slanderously report, Rom. iii. 8.), 
the more he discovers of God's forgiving kind- 
ness, the more does he reverently honour and fear 
to offend the God of his salvation. Nay, the grace 
he has received, quickens his appetite for more 
grace; he feels his entire dependence upon God's 
help, and is determined to cling always, and until 
the end, to that almighty and most merciful arm, 
which raised him up *' out of the horrible pit, and 
the miry clay," and " set his feet upon a rock" 
(Ps. xl. 2.), the Rock Christ Jesus. For he says: 
" I wait for the Lord, my soul doth w^ait, and in 
his word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the 
Lord more than they that watch for the morning ; I 
say, more than they that watch for the morning," 
Here we must consider, His waiting; His 
waiting ybr the Lord; His waiting for the Lord 



132 THE CONDUCT OF 

with hope in his word; His waiting for the Lord 
more than they that tvatchfor the morning. 
I. Waiting. 
II. Godly waiting. 

III. Hopeful waiting. 

IV. Watchful, constant, ardent waiting. 
I. Flis waiting. 

The word rendered waiting, literally signifies a 
direct tendency toward an object, as the tendency 
of streams to the sea. When used in a moral 
sense to describe a disposition of the soul, it 
implies a drawing near to another, from a 
sense of dependence, a desire of favour, and an 
expectation of good. It is the flowing forth of 
the whole soul, its thoughts, its affections, its 
wishes, and its confidence. It is not an occa- 
sional disposition, but a habit of the soul; not 
an idle or indifferent, but an active temper, 
showing itself in petitions, earnest looks, and 
persevering endeavours to obtain the good desired; 



THE PENITENT. 133 

as the faithful servant waits upon his. master, or 
the affectionate child upon its parent. It implies 
choice, sense of need, application for help, obe- 
dience and trust. Here it is: 

II. Godly waiting, Waiting/br the Lord, 
" Waiting for the Lord," describes the conduct 
of every soul conscious of sin, yet believing that 
there is forgiveness with Jehovah. It is not merely 
a looking for deliverance in circumstances of dis- 
tress or danger, but the prevailing, appropriate, 
characteristic temper of a faithful penitent. Thus 
the Psalmist: " Truly my soul waiteth upon God; 
from him cometh my salvation ;" " My soul, wait 
thou only upon God ; for my expectation is from 
him" (Ps. Ixii. 1. 5.); "They that wait on the 
Lord, shall inherit the earth" (Ps. xxxvii. 9.); 
And the prophet : " They that wait upon the Lord 
shall renew their strength ; they shall mount up 
with wings as eagles ; ihey shall run, and not 
be weary; they shall walk, and not faint" (Is, 
xl. 31.). 



134 THE CONDUCT OF 

Such a soul is ever drawing nigh unto God (Ps. 
Ixxiii. 28.). The wicked depart from God (Ps. 
Ixxiii. 27.); like the prodigal from his father's 
house, (Luke xv. 13,), they desire to forget God 
(Ps. ix. 17.), and to have no fear of God before 
their eyes (Ps. xxxvi. 1.); because the idea of 
God's presence restrains them from sinful indul- 
gence. The fact of their dependence upon God 
offends their pride, and the remembrance of the 
divine justice alarms their conscience, fastening 
terror upon their souls (John iii. 19, 20.). To be 
«« ungodly," to be "without God," and to be 
wicked, mean the same thing. The true penitent 
returns unto God (Luke xv. 17-20.) meditates 
upon God (Ps. i. 1, 2.), and fears before him all 
the day (Ps. xxv. 5. xci. 2.) ; because a sense of 
God's presence is a refuge and defence from 
temptation (Ps. Ixi. 3.); the divine character ex- 
cites an admiring reverence (Ps. cxxx. 4.), with a 
desire to be like him (Ps. xvii. 15.), and the 
forgiving mercy of God encourages and moves 



THE PENITENT. 135 

him to attempt the divine service (Ps. cxvi. 5.), 
He loves God, and therefore longs to be with 
him, and to enjoy him (Ps. xlii. 1, 2.). The 
more that he fears to sin, the nearer does he draw 
unto God (John vi. 37.). The tide of his affec- 
tions is changed, for as they were before prone 
toward earth, they now aspire toward heaven 
(Col. iii. 2.). 

The penitent believer is deeply sensible of his 
entire dependence. Raised from the depths of 
sin, he feels his utter unworthiness ; from the 
depths of guilt, his need of pardoning mercy; 
from the depths of corruption, his need of divine 
grace. All things are the Lord's, and therefore 
God only can bestow what is needful, as well for 
his body as his soul (Ps. cxlv. 15.). God bestows 
no favour upon the unworthy (Ps. Ixxxiv. 11.), 
and, therefore, except he be covered with the 
worthiness of Christ, he can have no blessing. 
God's blessing is found only in the way of 
righteousness (Is. Ixiv. 5.); and, therefore, except 



136 THE CONDUCT OP 

he be upheld, and guided, and strengthened by 
the Holy Ghost (Is. xl. 29.), he cannot maintain 
himself in a godly life. He is, therefore, entirely 
dependent upon God in Christ. He earnestly 
desires this divine favour. The most ordinary 
things necessary to his comfort in this life, he 
values, chiefly because they are proofs of God's 
love (Rom. viii. 32.). He delights to receive his 
daily bread, his daily strength, his nightly rest, 
Jiis familiar enjoyments, from the hand of his 
heavenly Father, as the gifts of God through Jesus 
Christ ; and so he waits upon God for them. 

But it is the favour of God to his soul, he 
desires the most. He longs for a perfect cleans- 
ing, a complete sanctification, an entire obedience; 
so long as a sin remains in him, as he is unable 
to perform any duty, as he is prone to relapse 
into folly, and to mingle his vain thoughts and 
affections with the pure knowledge and love 
of God, does he desire grace, which God alone 
can give; grace which seals him as a child of 



THE PENITENT. 137 

God; grace which is the earnest and the foretaste 
of a heavenly life. Comfort for his sorrow, light for 
his ignorance, strength for his w^eakness — all he 
desires from God. He is never secure, except in 
God. The temptation baffled to-day, starts into 
new strength on the morrow, or is succeeded by 
others more subtle, strong, and dangerous. Thus 
is he ever desiring help from God, and ever waits 
upon him ; and 

Thus he makes application unto God. He 
prays, for God hears prayer through Jesus Christ, 
Nor is his prayer interrupted and occasional ; for, 
though he cannot be always upon his knees, nor 
uttering words of supplication, there is a constant 
spirit of prayer in his heart, and his desire is to 
the Lord at all times. His weeping eyes are 
lifted up to Him, who sees the heart and reads the 
countenance. Prayer is as necessary to him as 
breath ; he cannot live without it. 

As he asks for grace, so he obeys God in the 
use of those means, which he has appointed to be the 



138 THE COIN DUCT OF 

channels of his blessing. He endeavours to forsake 
every evil way, which God declares leads to 
death, and to pursue every righteous path, which 
God declares leads unto life. He searches the 
Scriptures daily, as men cultivate the earth for 
food. The truth is as necessary to his soul as 
daily bread is to his body. He cannot live without 
it. He goes to the sanctuary, because there God 
delights to dwell. He listens to the preaching of 
t?ie word, because "it hath pleased God by the 
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." 
He receives the sacraments, because the Master, 
who ordained them, makes them to every penitent 
soul the washing away of sin, the bread of life, 
and the wine of joy. He mingles humble thanks- 
giving with all his service, and cordial praise with 
all his prayers, because with such sacrifices God 
is well pleased through Jesus Christ. Nay, he 
rejoices to consecrate all his powers, all his 
talents, all his means, and all his time, as an 
offering of devout gratitude to the service of God, 



THE PENITENT. 139 

and to His service in doing good to men. This is 
the way in which his Master walked, the way in 
which God has commanded him to walk, the 
way which leads from grace unto grace, until he 
is complete in heaven. 

Intimately connected with this obedience is sub- 
mission to the will of God in providence. He 
waits upon God for blessing; he has committed 
his soul unto God for sanctification, and, therefore, 
he meekly receives the lot, the chastisement, the 
care that God sends, believing that what God 
chooses for him is best, what God makes him 
suffer is needed, and the channel by which God 
conveys blessing, the safest and the truest. It is as 
much the part of true piety to suffer patiently, as 
it is to obey actively. 

Thus waiting upon God only, and in the way 
of God's commandments only, he expects the 
answer to the desires of his heart. As he longs, as 
he prays, as he walks in the path of upright- 
ness, he is ever ready, with his heart open, to 



140 THE CONDUCT OP 

receive the grace which he needs and seeks. For 
his is 

III. Hopeful waiting. 

" In his word do I hope." 

Hope is more than mere longing (Rom. viii. 
24, 25.); it is founded upon some warrant that 
we shall receive what we desire. The hope of 
the true penitent is thus intelligent, because it is 
built upon the word of God, which cannot deceive 
or fail. His faith receives that word as true, 
therefore he hopes. He waits in hope, not be- 
cause he deserves any thing himself, he is utterly 
unworthy; nor because he prays, or obeys, or 
submits, for, being unworthy, there can be no 
procuring cause in any thing he does ; but only 
from the forgiving mercy and sovereign grace of 
God, as revealed to him by God's own word and 
Spirit. From the word he learns the infinite merit 
of Christ his Saviour. Though he deserves nothing 
but wrath, Christ hath provided an infinite merit 
of atonement to cleanse him from his sin, and an 



THE PENITENT. 141 

infinite merit of obedience to deserve for him all 
the riciies of God. Because he believes God will 
be faithful to his own Son, the penitent hopes that 
God, for his Son's sake, will withhold from him no 
good thing. It is not presumption, but an honour- 
ing of Christ to expect great blessing for his sake. 

He reads in the gospel which reveals Christ, 
the'great compassion and regard of God for his 
soul. What unbounded love towards his chosen 
must have overflowed from the heart of God, 
when "he spared not his own Son, but delivered 
him up for us all!" How determined must God 
have been to bless the believer in Jesus, w^hen he 
constituted him our advocate and intercessor ! 
How certainly will He listen to the prayers for us 
of that beloved Son in whom He is well pleased ! 
How shall He not, when He gives Jesus to us as 
our atonement, righteousness, and intercessor, 
*' with him also freely give us all things ?" 

The same gospel reveals to him the almighty 
Agent in the conferring and application of blessing. 



142 THE CONDUCT OF 

even the third person in the ever adorable Trinity, 
(Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to 
the Holy Ghost!) the Divine Spirit, How cer- 
tainly will that Holy Spirit detect our every need, 
searching our hearts, and knowing our ways ! 
How wisely will that Holy Spirit arrange and 
provide the various economies for our weak and 
imperfect natures! How infinitely rich in all that 
is good for us, must that Holy Spirit be ! What 
can we want which He does not know, and cannot 
in the best manner bestow ? 

And then he reads the 'promises of God, ex- 
ceedingly great, and exceedingly precious, in 
number, variety, adaptedness, and fulness. There 
are no possible circumstances in which he can 
be placed, that he has not a promise waiting 
for him. All these promises are his by the pur- 
chase of Christ, by the covenant oath of God, by 
the applying grace of the Holy Ghost. In them 
he reads what God purposes to do for him, what 
God has directed him to ask for, what God com- 



THE PENITENT. 143 

mands him to expect from his fatherly love. 
God, by his Spirit in Christ Jesus, has made him 
to hope upon his word; and taught him to appro- 
priate those promises to his soul ; nor would he 
awaken desires so strong only to mock them with 
disappointment. The word of God, and the Spirit 
of God, cause him to rejoice in hope; and there- 
fore he waits in hope. As he receives grace in 
answer to his prayer, he is encouraged to hope 
for more; so his desire and his hope increase with 
their gratification. 

Thus is his, 

IV. A watchful^ constant^ ardent waiting. 

'* I wait for the Lord. My soul doth wait . . . 
My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that 
watch for ihe morning ; nay, more than they that 
watch for the morning." 

The figure here employed is very simple and 
expressive. As one, made for any reason to 
watch through the night long till the day breaks 
and the shadows flee away, fixes his eye on the 



144 THE CONDUCT OF 

eastern horizon to catch the first shootings of the 
dawn, and thinks the minutes slow until the gray- 
light appears, heralding the joyous sun, so does 
the faithful penitent in this world of sins and sha- 
dows, wait for the full day of God's perfect love, 
and perfect glory. 

He waits watchfully. 

He is yet in a world of sin and temptation. He 
dare not sleep, lest he should be caught sleeping 
and be shorn of his strength. He watches against 
his own heart, the world, the flesh, and the devil, 
longing for the holy light which shall chase away 
every thing that hurts or deceives; when lust, 
and wrong, and sin of every sort, shall retire, like 
the wild beasts of the forest to their dens. He is 
not safe until the perfect day, and therefore he 
watches until the day. His master's command is : 
" Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation," 
and he obeys it. 

Though it is night, God has given him work to 
do until morning. The Evangelist, speaking of 



THE PE^'ITENT» 145 

the gospel, says: " The light shineth in darkness, 
and the darkness comprehended it not" (John i. 
5.). The gospel is light, compared to the dark- 
ness of sin and ignorance which covers the world. 
The apostle Peter, in the use of the same figure, 
declares that Christians are called to "show forth 
the praises (the energies) of him who hath called 
them out of darkness into his marvellous light" 
(1 Peter ii. 9,). Our Master had before said to 
his disciples, ''Ye are the light of the world" 
(Matt. V. 14.). Nay, the Wisdom had revealed to 
the Old Testament saint, that " the path of the 
just is as the shining light, that shineth more and 
more unto the perfect day" (Prov. iv. 18.). The 
believer even now has a measure of light to cheer 
him, to guide him (Ephes. v. 8.), and to distin- 
guish him as '^ a child of the day" (1 Thess. v. 5.). 
Therefore is he " not to sleep as do others, but to 
watch and be sober," " putting on the breastplate 
of faith and love, and for an helmet the hope 
of salvation." He is to let his light so shine 
13 



146 THE CONDUCT OF 

before men, that they, may see his good works, 
and glorify his Father which is in heaven (Matt. v. 
16.). In other words, he is so to love and labour 
for the cause of Christ, that men may, by God's 
blessing upon his zeal, be led to prepare for the 
great and terrible day of the Lord. 

Besides, his desire will not suffer him to sleep. 
He hopes for the fulness of his joy, nor can 
he, from the very pleasure of the expectation, 
close his eyes in spiritual slumber. He expects 
in the morning the coming of his best Friend; 
how can his loving heart rest from the uneasiness 
of so joyous a hope? He expects that then his 
prison doors will be opened, and he be free to 
walk abroad in perfect liberty; how can the cap- 
tive sleep in the night before his complete emanci- 
pation? He expects that in the morning he shall 
reach his happy and eternal home ; what wonder 
that he wakefully pursues his heaven-lighted path ? 

He waits constantly. 

There is not a moment that he is not in danger 



THE PENITENT. 147 

of surprise from sin ; and, therefore, like a watch- 
ful sentinel, he is ever on the alert. There is not 
a moment when he has not work to do for his 
Master, when his light ought not to be shining 
before men, and his Christian character made 
manifest, that God may be glorified. At all times 
his heart is burning with desire for more and 
more manifestations of the divine love. His 
hope is for perfect holiness, for heaven, for im- 
mortality in the presence of God; and he can 
never cease longing until his satisfaction is com- 
plete. 

Nor can he tell at what moment God will 
appear to his soul. God often works myste- 
riously, though ever wisely. He withholds his 
sensible presence for a season, to try his people's 
faith and constancy. The times of our spiritual 
joys on earth, and the time of our complete eman- 
cipation by death from all earth's trials. He keeps 
in his own hand and power. Therefore must the 
true penitent be ever found in the use of the means. 



148 THE CONDUCT OF 

ever prepared for the Lord's coming, ever expect- 
ing his awful and joyous presence. 

He watches through the long night! He does 
not give over in despair, nor become weary through 
disappointment. He knows that the day will break. 
The stars of promise above him, shining down 
through the dim atmosphere^ prove to him that 
the Sun from whom they derive their light is 
shining, though he has not yet risen above the 
horizon. Soon He will arise and bring the perfect 
day. Every gleam of spiritual comfort encourages 
him with new hopes of his Master's grace and 
glory. 

He waits with ardour, 

God in Christ has now become all in all to 
his soul. He loves him with his whole heart, 
and he is impatient of. every sin or doubt that 
hinders him from giving up his whole being to his 
Lord. 

His whole happiness now is in the divine favour, 
and he ardently longs until God, having trans- 



THE PE]SITENT. 149 

formed him to a nobler nature, will pour out that 
favour without measure upon him. 

The tastes of the divine goodness, and the 
glimpses of the divine beauty, that he has had, 
and has increasingly, ravish him from the sinful 
pleasures and cares of this world, and set his 
whole soul on flame, as it were, for a full 
fruition. If such be the first fruits, what must be 
the full vintage? If the light of promise be so 
sweet, what must be the glory of the perfect day? 

Thus- does the penitent believer long for the 
Lord, '* more than they that long for the morn- 
ing." 

In all this, see what the conduct of the true 
penitent is. 

1. Religion rules his whole life. 

He is ever waiting for the Lord. Not like 
those who, having been roused to a sense of their 
danger, seek but to stupify their consciences, and 
having cheated themselves with some imaginary 
safety, relapse into sin and thoughtlessness. Not 



150 THE CONDUCT OF 

like those, who occasionally, as just before a 
communion day, affect an unwonted piety, as 
though a work of special devotion could make 
amends for months of lukewarmness. Nor even 
like those, who, content with regular prayers or 
religious meetings, are only religious when en- 
gaged in immediate devotion. Religion is his 
constant, characteristic walk. He waits for the 
Lord at all limes, in all places, and in all circum- 
stances. His continual effort is to know, to obey, 
and to glorify God. This is his sole aim, his 
only business, his great delight, 

2. The word of the Lord is his only stay. 

There he learns what God is, and he never 
allows himself to mingle any imaginations of his 
own, or of other men, with the character God 
has revealed of himself. There he learns how 
God is gracious and forgiving, and never mingles 
any supposed merit of his own with the righteous- 
ness of Christ, whom God has appointed to be a 
Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance and 



THE PENITENT. 151 

remission of sins. There he learns what God 
would have him to do, and he never mingles his 
own views of what is right, or the world's opinion 
of duty, with the divine directions. God is his 
sole master. To His service he has consecrated 
himself, and His word he obeys. There he reads 
the evidences of conversion, which God has de- 
clared to be true and sufficient, and in faith upon 
God's simple promises through Christ Jesus, he 
casts himself, by the grace of the Holy Ghost, 
wholly upon God. 

3. He is never satisfied with any degree of 
religious attainment in this life. His hope is set 
upon heaven, upon the perfect redemption, and 
the perfect holiness promised to him there. So in 
this preparatory state, he is always endeavouring 
to approach nearer and nearer to the character of 
heaven, in knowledge, in love, and in holiness. 
He patiently waits for his deliverance, while he 
ardently longs for the day, when he will be com- 
plete in the glory radiating from the face of God 



152 THE CONDUCT OF 

his Saviour, and *'upon all the glory there shall be 
a defence" (Is. iv. 5.) from sin, temptation, doubt, 
and sorrow. He may have his moments of anxiety, 
sadness and gloom, /because he is still compassed 
al>out with the body of sin and death, still living 
in a polluted and seductive world, still exposed to 
the machinations of the evil one, but the conduct 
of his life is '' waiting for the Lord." 

In what sad contrast to this is the condition of 
those who live *' without God and without hope!" 
to whose impenitent souls, the idea of God is 
painful, because they know him only as an angry 
Judge, and death terrible as the termination of 
all their enjoyments, and the beginning of their 
eternal woe ! In vain they strive to drown the 
alarms of conscience by the occupations of busi- 
ness, the delirium of pleasure, or the sophisms of 
infidelity. They cannot altogether, or at all times, 
' escape from the dreadful forebodings which a 
sense of their sin, and the declarations of the 
divine word, force upon them. There are silent, 



THE PENITENT. 153 

lonely moments, when, like the devils, they 
''believe and tremble;" nay, apprehensions of 
divine vengeance reach them in the midst of their 
worldly pride and exultation ; the sword hangs 
over their heads at the feast; horrible spectres 
meet them in the dance ; their wealth aggravates 
their bitterness, because they cannot keep it for 
ever, nor will it save them from the dreadful 
account, when they must suffer the more because 
of its abuse ; while they listen to their flatterers, 
a secret oracle within ihem pronounces them fools, 
whose soul in a moment may be required of them. 
Too well taught to disbelieve the retributions of 
eternity, yet too much in love with sin to give up 
its pursuit, they lose the enjoyment of this world 
through fear of the next, and pass from a life of 
anxiety to the reality which they dreaded, but 
would not escape from. There remains to them " a 
certain, fearful looking for of judgment and fiery 
indignation, which shall devour the adversaries" 
of God and his law (Heb. x. 17.). '' There is no 
14 



154 THE CONDUCT OF THE PENITENT. 

peace, saith my God, to the wicked" (Is. Ivii. 21.); 
but especially none for those who know the truth, 
yet will not obey it. The God, who smiles upon 
the penitent, is to them '' a consuming fire ;" the 
Saviour, upon whom the believer leans, is their 
avenging enemy; the gospel, that speaks glad 
tidings to the humble seeker, only confirms their 
eternal ruin ; and already, in tormenting anticipa- 
tion of their doom, they see heaven afar off, across 
a gulf they cannot pass. O, that they might yet 
turn and seek the Lord, if, peradventure, they yet 
may have life ! 



VIII. 



THE EXHORTATION OF THE PENITENT. 



**Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord 
there is mercy, and with him there is plenteous 
redemption. And he shall redeem Israel from 
all his iniquities." 

What a surprising change has been wrought 
in our penitent ! He, whom we found " in the 
depths," " crying" for deliverance, is now so 
confident of safety, that he becomes the teller of 
good news to all sorrowful, sin-troubled souls, 
exhorting them to hope in the same grace, 
wherein he stands (Rom. v. 2.). 



156 THE EXHORTATION OF 

Critics tell us, that when this psalm was used 
in the Temple service, these last two verses were, 
probably, sung as a response by the priest, who thus 
called upon the whole congregation to profit from 
the story of the grateful penitent. Be this as it may, 
there is no need, for our purposes, of introducing 
another speaker than the penitent himself. They 
describe the spirit and language of every true 
convert from sin unto God. Every rescued sin- 
ner is born into the Spirit of God, God the Father, 
God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, the God 
of salvation, who is " not willing that any should 
perish, but that all should come unto repentance" 
(2 Peter iii. 9.); and, therefore, he earnestly 
desires the salvation of all sinners like himself, 
tells them of the mercy which he has found, and 
endeavours to bring them to that Jesus, who has 
healed his soul. Such regard to the best good of 
others, is a necessary evidence of his being a child 
of God, a follower of Christ, and a temple of the 
Holy Ghost; of God, who gave his only begotten 



THE PENITENT. 157 

Son; of Christ, who lived, and died, and rose 
again ; of the Holy Ghost, whose almighty ener- 
gies are put forth for the salvation of sinners. 

The true penitent is moved to this zeal for the 
salvation of his fellow sinners by love for their 
souls. He sees the guilt and danger which they are 
in, for he has been himself in the same depths. He 
has been made to feel how dreadful a thing it is to 
sin against God, the terribleness of the divine 
wrath, and the impossibility of escape from its 
eternal consequences after the present day of 
mercy has gone by. The insensibility of impeni- 
tent men to their true condition, alarms and dis- 
tresses him ; for, so long as they remain thus 
wilfully blind and careless of their souls, he has 
no hope of their rescue. He trembles as he 
thinks of their utter ruin, and the agonies of their 
eternal death. Common humanity pities the peril 
or suffering of a fellow creature, and will strive, 
if possible, to avert it ; what then must be the 
compassion and solicitude of a Christian heart for 



158 THE EXHORTATION OP 

an immortal soul, sleeping unconcerned on the 
brink of endless and unspeakable anguish ! 

At the same time he knows the readiness, the 
sufficiency, and the preciousness of God's mercy 
in Christ Jesus to save even to the uttermost. He 
has had sweet experience of the riches of grace in 
his own soul. He has felt the power of the Sa- 
viour's arm in uplifting him from the depths of his 
despair, the cleansing efficacy of the Saviour's 
blood in washing away all his guilt, and the sanc- 
tifying virtue of the Saviour's Spirit in turning his 
affections to God, in filling his soul with holy 
thought, and in bringing him to a sweet, reve- 
rent, and confiding " fellowship with the Father, 
and with his Son Jesus Christ." He is yet a sin- 
ner, and every moment he has occasion for fresh 
repentance; but every moment he may apply by 
faith the blood of sprinkling and of peace, to his 
conscience. He is yet weak, altogether insufficient 
of himself for any good thing ; but he has an 
Almighty Helper, who strengthens him from on 



THE PENITENT. 159 

high to resist temptation, to bear his burden 
meekly, and to do his Master's will. He is yet 
corrupt, and "sin dwelleth in him," but the pro- 
cess of sanctification is begun iii his heart; there 
is a resistless energy there, not his own, battling 
with, and, in sure progress, overcoming his unbelief 
and proneness to sin, the earnest of an ultimate, 
entire deliverance; and, above all, he has hope in 
God's covenant-promise of an eternal heaven, 
where none of his sin, and weakness, and cor- 
ruption can follow him, but where, in perfect 
holiness, pure joy, and immortal vigour, he shall 
serve God with his entire nature, and be filled 
with the delight of God's presence, love, and 
approval. As he rejoices in this experience of 
divine grace, so free and so boundless, he earn- 
estly longs that others, who are yet " in the depths," 
may be raised up to be partakers with him of the 
same salvation. There is enough for all. Thou- 
sands may come and drink in eternal life from 
these waters, and yet there be none the less. The 



160 THE EXHORTATION OF 

love of God in his heart has expanded it to a 
largeness of affection, which would embrace all in 
that blessedness which he enjoys. Every motive 
that bids man love his neighbour, urges the Chris- 
tian, with a force unspeakable, to seek the eternal 
good of his fellow sinner. 

The true penitent is moved to zeal for the sal- 
vation of others, hy love for his oivn soul. He 
desires assurance of his own interest in Christ ; 
and the Holy Ghost instructs him, that he must 
make his calling and election sure by fruit fulness 
in good works. For, says the beloved disciple, 
^' he that saith he abideth in him, ought himself 
also so to walk, even as he walked" (1 John ii. 6.). 
And how did Christ walk? Was it not in the 
entire consecration of Himself to the salvation of 
men's souls, by his teaching, by his example, by 
his righteous life, and atoning death ; nay, since he 
has risen again, by his continual intercession and 
royal power! It is, therefore, only while like Christ 
he is endeavouring to save men's souls, that he is 



THE PENITENT. 161 

sure of being in the way to eternal life, the way 
by which Jesus, the Forerunner, has passed into 
heaven for us. He desires to grow in grace, and 
in the knowledge and joy of faith, and the Holy 
Ghost instructs him, that grace is not given to the 
idle (Prov. xix. 15.), but that " God meeteth him 
that rejoiceth, and w^orketh righteousness" (Isa. 
Ixiv. 5.); nay, that according to the testimony of 
Christ's own experience, the doing of God's will 
is itself as meat and drink for the nourishment of 
the soul (John iv. 32-34.). Indeed, he finds in 
faithful practice, that mercy to others is a sure 
way, by divine blessing, of receiving larger mercy 
for himself; that, as he teaches others, God teaches 
him; as he comforts others, God comforts him; 
as he prays for others, the blessing returns upon 
his own head ; and, as he sows the seed of good 
works by a holy husbandry, the spiritual exercise 
gives to his soul a more healthful strength, a better 
appetite for the bread of life, while it secures an 
abundant harvest of holv fruit. 



162 THE EXHORTATION OF 

In these Christian labours, his thoughts, so apt 
to wander in sin, are fixed upon better purposes; 
his hands, so apt to busy themselves in sin, are 
occupied with pious deeds; and his time, so apt to 
be wasted upon the trifles, and worse than trifles, 
of the world, is more than filled up with opportu- 
nities of good, which increase in number and rich- 
ness as he improves them. What Christian, who 
has thus served the souls of his fellow sinners, will 
not gladly testify, that in seeking to do them good, 
to enlighten their darkness, to refute their scepti- 
cism, to remove their doubts, and to help them 
out of their difficulties, he has found his own 
faith strengthened, his own temptations subdued, 
and his own comforts more abundant? Who are 
they, that in the church of God walk with up- 
lifted head, cheerful countenance and steady 
progress, but those who do, or endeavour to do, 
the most good to the souls of others 1 On the con- 
trary, they, upon whom the world exerts its worst 
influence, upon whose ear the word of God falls 



THE PENITENT. 163 

with the least effect, whose religion seems rather 
a restraint than a privilege, are those who do the 
least, pray the least, and give the least for the 
salvation of others. 

He desires the rewards of eternal life. He has 
been too well taught by the Spirit of God, to be- 
lieve that he can purchase an entrance into heaven 
by his own good works, or that its glorious joy 
can be won by any less price than the infinite 
merit of Christ his Saviour; but, at the same time, 
he reads that it is part of God's gracious purpose 
in the economy of grace, to allow no good deed 
of his servant, though it be no more than giving 
a cup of cold water, to be without its wages (Matt. 
X. 22. XXV.); nay, that, according to our fidelity 
now, shall be our dignity hereafter; for, while '' the 
wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, 
they that turn many to righteousness shall be as 
stars in that firmament for ever and ever" (Daniel 
xii. 3.), Of all the services we can render to 
men, the greatest is that of assisting them in the 



164 THE EXHORTATION OF 

salvation of their souls. Success in this highest 
effort of charity, was the joy which the Master set 
before hinaself (Heb. xii. 2.), and into which every 
faithful servant shall enter with him (Matt. xxv. 
21.). It is God's greatest work and greatest 
glory to save sinners, and his best rewards are 
for those who are most like himself. There- 
fore, as the Christian soul desires heaven, so will 
he desire to take others with him there. Thus 
is doing good to men's souls vitally connected 
with his best interest, his highest pleasure, and his 
holiest hope. 

There is a yet stronger motive, the one, indeed, 
that gives strength to those already named, which 
excites the true penitent's zeal for the salvation 
of his fellow sinners : The glory of his God. 
The first conviction of the Christian on per- 
ceiving the mercy of God to his soul, is, that 
he is not his "own," but "bought with a price" 
(1 Cor. vi. 19, 20.), belonging to his faithful 
Saviour Jesus Christ. As the creature of God, 



THE PENITENT. 165 

sustained by God's power and supported by his 
bounty, a subject of God's laws and responsible 
at God's judgment seat, he belongs unto God; 
but until he was awakened from his sin by the 
Spirit of Christ, his soul was dead to every sense 
of such obligation. Now the love of God in 
Christ " constrains him," and he resolves with 
delight *' to live not unto himself, but unto him 
who died for him, and who rose again" (2 Cor. 
V. 14.). He acknowledges himself as twice the 
Lord's, by creation and redemption. In the great- 
ness of that love of God which pitied him in his 
sins, and determined to save him; the greatness of 
the provision made in the person and w^ork of 
Christ for his eternal welfare; the greatness of that 
spiritual Power, which, in long suffering patience, 
bore with and overcame the obstinacy of his im- 
penitence, and shed light and life supernatural 
through his soul; and the greatness of the change 
from his condemnation to eternal death, unto heir- 
ship of eternal life, he reads the claims which God 



166 THE^EXHORTATION OF 

has upon his whole heart, his whole time, his 
whole energy. Therefore he confesses himself 
wholly the Lord's, and determines to do all that 
he does to the glory of God (1 Cor. x. 31.). This 
is the reality of conversion to God, the genuine 
repentance which has the promise of life ; and all 
change, less than this, comes short of repentance. 
The Scriptures abundantly show us, that such 
entire consecration to God, does not forbid, but 
is every way consistent with, love and service 
to our fellow men, and endeavours to secure 
our own personal happiness. The same law, 
which requires us to love our neighbour as our- 
selves, commands us to love God with all our 
hearts. The same gospel, which insists upon our 
glorifying God with our bodies and spirits which 
are his, proposes the rewards of heaven as motives 
to our zeal. But it is, because the love of God 
includes and sanctifies all other warranted love 
and aims, that, while we love our neighbours as 
ourselves, while we love our own souls, and strive 



THE PENITENT. 167 

to secure their and our own salvation, the glory of 
God should be our chief purpose and paramount 
motive. It is the recognition of this principle, which 
alone can secure a Christian's steadfastness in 
duty, amidst the seeming conflict of human in- 
terests, prevent him from being led astray by 
lower and base motives, or encourage him to per- 
severance until the end, notwithstanding the oppo- 
sition and enmity, and even persecution, of those 
whom he seeks to serve. If his aim be not high 
as the throne of God, he will prove weak, waver- 
ing, and easily disgusted with the painful but only 
path, by which we can reach glory, honour, and 
immortality, "patient continuance in w^ell doing." 
When he feels that God is his master, whose law 
is perfect, and whose promises of reward are sure, 
the w^orld's seductions, ridicule, or hatred, will be 
alike powerless. 

Then, as he belongs to God, his question is: 
** What will the Lord have me to do?" in what 
manner has God declared I may serve him most 



168 THE EXHORTATION OF 

acceptably? and the answer to this is readily 
learned from God's holy word. What purpose of 
God in his providence toward this world, is para- 
mount over all others? The salvation of sinners 
by Jesus Christ, his Son, What work of God has 
he wrought at the vastest expense, and by the 
mightiest instrumentality? The salvation of sin- 
ners by Jesus Christ, his Son. What was the aim 
of Christ, when upon earth he set a divine example 
of human duty? The salvation of sinners. What 
is the office of the Holy Ghost as the Spirit of the 
Father and of the Son? The conversion and 
sanctification of sinners by Christ. What is the 
employment of the angelic host of the Son of God? 
They are "all ministering spirits, sent forth to 
minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation" 
(Heb. i. 14.). What was the great command of 
Christ to the apostolic representatives of his 
church? To preach the gospel of salvation to 
sinners. To what service does God propose the 
highest rewards in heaven ? As we have already 



THE PENITENT. 169 

seen, zeal for the salvation of sinners. What are 
the means which God employs in carrying on this 
great work of his in this world? Christian exam- 
ple, Christian prayers, and Christian activity in 
the diffusion of truth. 

The Christian's duty is, therefore, very clear. 
It is to consecrate all that he has, all that he is, 
and all that by God's grace he can be, to the glory 
of God in the salvation of his fellow sinners ; be- 
cause that is the work which God himself most 
delights in, which He commands him to perform, 
and from which He will have his chiefest glor\\ The 
love of Christ to his own soul, thus constrains him 
to live for the souls of others, and he accounts it 
his highest privilege, that he is permitted to em- 
ploy his energies in so glorious, dignifying, and 
enriching a work, as persuading, by God's grace, 
those who are dead in trespasses and sins to 
live for the glory of God here, and, escaping from 
eternal death, glorify God in an eternal blessed- 
ness. Thus is he a worker together with God 
15 



170 THE EXHORTATION OF 

the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, 
m securing the salvation of dying men, his 
own eternal reward, and God's most manifold 
glory. 

All our observations have been so immediately 
practical, that no inferences which might be drawn 
at the close could be more so. Several lessons 
may, however, be repeated with advantage. 

No one can be a true penitent who is indif- 
ferent to the salvation of his fellow sinners. 

If he really believe in an eternal hell, he cannot 
help but feel a deep anxiety for those who are in 
danger of eternal death. Who can think of im- 
mortal souls exposed to everlasting burnings, the 
fearful weight of God's endless wrath, and not 
weep, and pray, and strive to save them? If he 
really believe in an eternal heaven of joy and 
truth and holiness, freely offered through Christ 
to all who will accept it by faith upon his promise, 
he must desire that his fellow men may share its 
hope with him; nor will he cease to declare the 



THE PENITENT. 171 

manifold riches of that grace which has saved his 
soul, and is ready to save theirs. 

If he really apprehend for himself the love of 
God in Christ, which, at such expense, and after 
such long suffering, lifts him up from such depths 
of sin and guilt and corruption, to such heights 
of purity and favour and holiness, he must speak 
out in the gratitude of his soul, and declare the 
riches of the grace of God, and call upon all men 
to magnify the Lord with him, and to exalt his 
name. Xay, with the apostle, he will regard 
himself as having obtained mercy for this cause: 
that '* in him Jesus Christ might show forth all 
long suffering, for a pattern to them which should 
hereafter believe en him to life everlasting" (1 Tim. 
i. 16.). 

I charge you, therefore, before God, that you 
do not deceive yourselves with the supposition 
that you are Christians, if you be not diligently 
and earnestly engaged in doing good to men's 
souls. Your opportunities may be various, som.e 



172 THE EXHORTATION OF 

greater, and some less ; but no one is without 
opportunities for this work, to which you are 
called. To he idle is to he dead; dead to the 
best interests of those around you ; dead to the 
hope of eternal reward ; dead to the love of the 
glory of God, 

No converted sinner can ever do enough for 
God in this work of saving men's souls. 

While a single sinner remains unconverted, or 
a single saint imperfectly sanctified, there is work 
to be done, a great work, and a glorious work. 
That one soul, more precious than a world or a 
universe of matter, must suffer or enjoy immor- 
tally. Think, my reader, if the whole of man- 
kind were become Christians, except one poor 
impenitent, what a power of sympathy and prayer 
and effort, would be turned toward his salvation ; 
but now, while many around us, while millions of 
our race are perishing through sin, while even in the 
circle of your friends, perhaps your very house- 
hold, there are those who are without God, how 



THE PENITENT. 173 

cold is Christian zeal, how feeble and how few 
are Christian prayers, how meagre, and how 
reluctant are Christian gifts for the cause of sal- 
vation! 

Christ has bought our whole life. We were 
utterly lost without his salvation; all we have is 
his by purchase, and by gift. We have no right 
lo keep any thing back from him. All is His, 
and we are dishonest, as well as ungrateful, if we 
do less, or pray less, or give less than we pos- 
sibly can for him. What did he keep back from 
us, when he gave Himself, all the riches of his 
divinity, all the perfection of his humanity, for us? 
What has He not done for us, when He began in 
eternity the purpose of our salvation, and in his 
life upon earth, went continually about doing 
good, suffering wrong, and working out our sal- 
vation, even until death? What did He not give 
for us, when though '' he was rich, for our sakes 
he became poor, that we through his poverty might 
be rich" (2 Cor. viii. 9.)? How has He prayed 



174 TUB EXHORTATION OF 

for us, who, in the far eternity, cried : " Deliver 
from going down to the pit ; I have found a ran- 
som" (Job xxxiii. 24.)? "Who, in the days of his 
flesh, offered up prayers and supplications with 
strong crying and tears" (Heb. v. 7.); and who, 
since his ascension, " ever liveth to make interces- 
sion for us" (Heb. vii. 5.)? Christian, how can we 
put any limit to our labours, our gifts, our prayers, 
in His service ? 

Each hour of our Christian life increases our 
obligations to him, for long suffering with our 
remaining sin, for fresh grace to resist temptation, 
endure trial, and do our work; for new know- 
ledge of Christian doctrine, new manifestations of 
divine favour, new expectations of eternal life ; 
for repeated and increasing opportunities of useful- 
ness, with grace to improve them. Therefore, so far 
from becoming weary in well-doing, or praying, 
or giving for the good cause of salvation, every 
hour should find our zeal in all these means 
enlarging and more cheerful. Our first love 



THE PENITENT. 175 

should be warm, but each day it should be 
warmer; and our light "shining brighter and 
brighter, unto the perfect day." 

True repentance is a most practical thing. It 
lies not in tears and regrets, though well may we 
weep over the past; nor in ecstacies and promises, 
though well may we rejoice, and resolve upon a 
better obedience; but it is to be seen, by the 
divine grace of the Holy Spirit, in our active use- 
fulness, in a resemblance to the God of mercy, and 
in a following of Christ, the Saviour of sinners. 

It rules the whole conduct ; not merely in our 
prayers, or other devotional services, or Sundays, 
or our hours of religious thought; but always, 
in all that we do, in the house or by the way, in 
our business or our rest, consecrating us entirely 
to the glory of God, in serving our fellow sinners. 

It is operative through our whole lives ; not 
merely in the distresses which usually accompany 
conversion, but more and more powerful the longer 
we live, the more we experience of divine grace. 



176 THE EXHORTATION OF THE PENITENT. 

and the nearer we approach to heaven. Even 
then, though the sorrows of repentance shall be 
over, the fruits of repentance will abound in an 
unending and constant service of Him who sits 
upon the throne. 

Happy they, who, in such repentance, have the 
earnest of eternal life! But, Oh! let us remember 
the awful reverse : '' Except ye repent, ye shall 
all likewise perish!-' 



IX. 

THE EXHORTATION OF THE PENITENT. 

(CONTINUED.) 



''Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord 
there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemp- 
tion. And he shall redeem Israel from all his 
iniquities." 

These verses describe, not only, as we have 
seen, the earnest desire of every true penitent for 
the salvation of his fellow sinners, to which he is 
moved by his regard for their souls, his own soul, 
and the glory of God ; but also the language of 
his whole life, which is a continual exhortation to 
16 



178 THE EXHORTATION OF 

faith in God, as the God of salvation. This may 
be farther opened by considering: 

Whom he exhorts; what he exhorts them to: 
and how he exhorts them. 

First : Whom he exhorts. 

Israel. " Let Israel hope," &c. 

Secondly: What he exhorts them to. 

'^ Hope in the Lord;^^ for the several reasons 
assigned. 

Thirdly: How he exhorts them. 

This we may gather from the tenor of the 
psalm, and from other Scriptures. 

First: Whom he exhorts, "Let Israel hope 
in the Lord." 

When the psalm was written, the covenant of 
God's mercy was, as yet, revealed only to the 
children of Abraham, Israel according to the 
flesh. '^TheLambof God, which taketh away 
the sin of the world" (John i. 29.), was not made 
fully manifest until the fulness of times (Gal. iv. 
^"^ 4.), when that dispensation began, which is to 



THE PENITENT. 179 

*^ gather together in Christ all things in heaven 
and in earth" (Ephes. i. 10.), and, especially, to 
make Jews and Gentiles one by the body of Christ 
upon the cross (Ephes. ii. 13-16.); since which 
enlargement of the divine mercy, all who are 
Christ's, and only they, whether Jews or Gentiles, 
are *' Abraham's seed, and children according to 
the promise" (Gal. iii. 28, 29.). The ancient 
believer, therefore, when he exhorted to faith in 
God, and obedience to his commandments, ad- 
dressed himself to Israel, who had the law and 
the promises (Rom. iii. 1.). 

Upon the same principle, the Christian believer 
exhorts the true spiritual Israel, even all those 
who receive by faith that gospel of salvation 
which is preached unto every creature (Luke 
xxiv. 47.), God's most holy "church" (Ephes. 
i. 23.). 

It is, however, but too evident from the sacred 
narrative, that, under the former dispensation, 
*^all were not Israel, that were called Israel" 



180 THE EXHORTATION OF 

(Rom. ix. 6.). Often the whole nation, with 
exceptions so few as to be scarcely discernible, 
went into idolatry; even when there was no such 
open lapse, and the people externally worshipped 
according to the covenant, there were very many 
whose "hearts were not right toward God," and 
who had no genuine faith in the law or the pro- 
mises. An exhortation addressed to Israel, was 
not, therefore, necessarily confined to the pious 
among them; but we hear the prophets often 
calling upon Israel to repent and turn unto the 
Lord, and rebuking them for their ungrateful and 
perilous impiety. In the verses before us, the 
whole congregation of Israel, assembled for the 
temple worship, are exhorted to hope in the 
Lord. It is, then, the proper interpretation of the 
text, to consider the true penitent as exhorting 
the people of God to hope in the Lord ; and not 
only them, but all those also whom he desires 
to become God's people; all who, having the 
gospel in their hands, or sounding in their ears, 



THE PENITENT. 181 

know, and ought to pursue, the way of salva- 
tion. 

The Christian penitent exhorts the people of 
God, because they are subject to many trials, . 
which bear hard upon Iheir faith, and many 
temptations and infirmities, which expose them to 
sin. It is his duty to comfort his believing bre- 
thren with such gracious words of encouragement 
(1 Thess. iv. 18: v. 11.), and to exhort them 
" dally, lest any be hardened through the deceit- 
fulness of sin" (Heb. iii. 13.). This is one of the 
great ends of Christian fellowship; for we are 
" members one of another" (Rom. xii. 5.), that 
we may have a tender sympathy and common 
interest. God gives each his individual expe- 
rience of grace, not for himself alone, but that he 
may share his lessons of profit with his brethren 
in Christ ; and, indeed, next to the word of God 
itself, the Holy Spirit uses no means more 
efficiently for our Christian edification, than the 
counsel of fellow Christians from their own heart- 



182 THE EXHORTATIOIS' OF 

history. It is when we know how they have 
been comforted under sorrow, made victorious 
over temptation, and, with infirmities like our 
own, carried forward by divine grace, that we 
are encouraged to trust in the same almighty 
strength, which has made them strong. The 
Christian has a personal interest in the edifi- 
cation of his fellow Christians. It reacts upon 
his own. For one member of Christ cannot 
prosper or suffer, without the other members 
prospering or suffering with it. Their prayers, 
their example, their counsel, bless him in return. 
We are sympathetic beings, and Christianity does 
not destroy our nature, but uses it for our good. 
It is natural that we be stronger when others are 
strong around us, that we be more zealous when 
others are zealous, more prayerful when others 
are prayerful. When w^e are indifferent to the 
spiritual profit of our brethren, no wonder that we 
grow cold to our own best good. For, as the 
apostle say§: "The whole body fitly joined 



THE PENITENT. 183 

together, and compacted by that which every 
joint supplieth, according to the effectual working 
in the measure of every part, maketh increase of 
the body to the edifying of itself in love" (Ephes. 
iv. 16.). 

It is also to the church that God has committed 
the instrumentality, which is to manifest his glory 
unto the world. They are " the lights of the 
world" (Matt. v. 13.), like stars in the night, 
deriving their radiance from the great Sun of 
Righteousness, whom they see, but the world 
does not. They are the "salt of the earth," 
pxirifying and preserving it from greater corrup- 
tion, to which it is constantly prone. But if the 
light grow dim, or the " salt lose its savour," 
where are the hopes of the world 1 Hence you 
find the great stress of the apostles' preaching, 
like that of the Master's, was not to unconverted 
men, but to disciples. If the spiritual welfare of 
Christians be secured, the conversion of sinners is 
certain. It is for this reason, that we call those 



184 THE EXHORTATION OF 

precious seasons in which many are turned unto 
God, revivals of religion. Religion is not revived 
in the heart of the recent convert ; it never existed 
there before; but the revival of Christian zeal, 
which had grown cold, is the occasion and means 
of increased conversion to Christ from the world. 
Perhaps it is a mistake of modern piety, to be 
directing its energies so exclusively and imme-. 
diately to the conversion of the impenitent. This, 
though a grand duty, is not our only or para- 
mount, duty. The edification of those already in 
the church, the guarding of the young, the 
reclaiming of the wandering, the comforting of the 
discouraged, the gentle rebuke of the erring, and 
bearing with the weak, are the more effectual ways 
of accomplishing a general good. Every Christian, 
whose zeal is successful in reviving our piety, 
becomes, by God's grace, our cheerful and efficient 
fellow labourer. In his life, we have a new testi- 
mony to the power of God's grace; in his prayers, 
a new reason to expect the divine blessing ; and in 



THE PENITENT. 155 

his liberality, new means to carry forward the 
work of God. Therefore it is, that the Holy 
Spirit insists so much upon Christians helping, 
exhorting, and sustaining one another. For if one 
member of the body be sick, the health of the 
whole fails; if one be deformed, the beauty of its 
symmetry is impaired; and if one be corrupt, the 
mortification will extend to all ; the glory of God's 
grace will not be so manifest, nor will sinners be 
constrained to render praise to his namiO. Thus 
every true penitent exhorts God*s true ^'Israel'' 
to " hope in the Lord." 

But his zeal is not confined to the people of 
God. As was shown in the last chapter, he is 
moved to seek the conversion of men unto God 
by the love he bears to their souls, his own soul, 
and the glory of his God. He considers himself 
chosen and called to this great work of doing 
good to men, and honouring God: and that this 
is the most efficient method, by divine grace» of 
securing his spiritual advancement now, and his 



186 THE EXHORTATION OF 

heavenly glory hereafter. While men remain 
out of God's Israel, they are lost, their influence 
is to lead others to death, and to dishonour God. 
Therefore, he would have all men Christians ; 
all partakers of the blessedness he enjoys; all 
labourers with him in the work of God; all Chris- 
tians. As far as eternity exceeds time, the im- 
mortal soul the frail perishing flesh, and the 
glories of heaven are above the agonies of hell, so 
far above every other engagement the duty of 
saving souls is, in his sight, important. 

So much as he is indebted to the grace of God 
for his own conversion and growth in grace, does 
he feel himself bound to serve God in the great 
work of saving souls ; and, as his experience of 
religion is another, and to him the most con- 
vincing evidence of its truth, so does he tell of 
God's grace to his own soul, not in ostentation, 
but grateful humility, that he may persuade them 
also to *' taste and see that the Lord is good." In 
a word, he proves that he is Christ's, and has 



THE PENITENT* 187 

Christ's Spirit, by his following of Christ in the 
great work of salvation. 

This, however, l:iaving been treated of at large 
before, what was then said need not be repeated, 
but we may pass on to enquire, 

Secondly : What he exhorts to. 

"Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the 
Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous 
redemption, and he shall redeem Israel from all 
his iniquities." 

'' Hope in the Lord,''' This is the duty and 
privilege to which the penitent exhorts all his 
fellow^ sinners, and he gives the several reasons 
why sinners should hope in the Lord. 

He does not confine this hope to any one thing 
as its object. It is simply ^' hope in the Lord:'''' 
yet as the Lord is the overflowing fountain of 
all good and blessing and life, so to hope in 
the Lord implies a confident expectation of 
receiving from the Lord all that a sinful creature 
needs, and all that a Christian should desire. 



188 THE EXHORTATION OF 

But how may we hope in the Lord? Are we not 
sinners? Do we not deserve His wrath, who will 
not allow sin to go unpunished ? How may a 
sinner hope in the Lord? 

Ah! the penitent answers; I too am a sinner, 
by nature and practice, plunged in the depths of 
sin, and guilt, and corruption; but I. cried unto 
the Lord; I acknowledged my transgressions unto 
him, and did not hide my iniquity (Ps. xxxii. 5.); 
for well I knew, that if He were " strict to mark 
iniquity, i could not stand;" but, blessed be his 
name! I found that there was "forgiveness with 
him, that he might be feared." Therefore, I say 
unto Israel: ** Hope in the Lord, for with the 
Lord there is mercy." 

The mercy of the Lord is the great argument 
with the sinner to turn unto him. This mercy 
is in Christ Jesus to all who will receive it. How 
great must have been the purpose of God to save 
sinners, when he gave his only begotten Son ? 
How ready must he be to save sinners, now that 



THE PENITENT. 1S9 

the righteousness of Christ has been wrought out, 
his blood shed, and he lives to plead at the right 
hand of God for the salvation of sinners 1 How 
perilous the condition, and dreadful the doom 
of the impenitent soul, when nothing less than 
the infinite merit and power of Christ could suffice 
to save a single soul 1 Whichever way you regard 
it, there is no argument like the mercy of God in 
Christ, to win a soul to him. Thus the Saviour 
preached, thus his apostles preached, thus the 
evangelical church of all ages has preached, and 
thus every true penitent exhorts. It is mercy that 
convicts, and mercy that converts. Never do we 
see our sin in its true light, until we see it by the 
light of the cross. What sin to rebel ao;ainst a 
God so good, so merciful, and so ready to save? 
What sin to reject such a Saviour, and to trample 
upon such blood ! Thus the mercy of God through 
the sufferings of Jesus, breaks the heart with con- 
viction of sin. Then mercy converts. The love 
of God in Christ draws the soul to him, and, 



190 THE EXHORTATION OF 

amidst the agonies of conscious guilt, calls him to 
hope, assuring him that his sins may be forgiven, 
and he received as a child of God, renewed unto 
holiness, and made an heir of everlasting life. 
Pardon, sanctification, heaven, the love of God, 
and grace to serve him ; these draw the sinner, 
mourning over his sin, and despairing in his guilt, 
yet desirous of obeying God, to God in Christ. 
" Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with him there 
is mercy," says the penitent ; there is mercy, 
for I have found it, sinner that I am, yet sinner 
saved by grace. 

But the convicted sinner may reply again : 
" Yes, there is mercy, mercy for those who are 
sinners; but is there for so great a sinner as I? 
as I, who have no good in me, who try in vain to 
do right, and sin on? as I, who have abused so 
much light, and refused so much grace ?" Hear 
what the penitent says: With Him is '* plenteous 
redemption," redemption which has no limit in 
its riches or its powers; redemption infinite as the 



THE PENITENT. 191 

love of God, the merits of Christ, and the energy 
of the Holy Ghost : not only pardon, but redemp- 
tion; for Jesus, who is the Saviour, is also the 
Deliverer. He washes from sin by his blood, He 
covers the sinner by his righteousness, and He 
delivers him by his power. Plenteous redemp- 
tion — redemption for the worst, the guiltiest, the 
most inveterate sinner, who will accept it from 
Him. Plenteous redemption — redemption from 
the thrall of sin, from the corruption of our own 
natures, the temptations of the world, and the 
malice of the devil. Grace to will, grace to do, 
grace to persevere — all that the sinner needs, to 
become a new creature, is found in this plenteous 
redemption. Hope then in the Lord,^ with a con- 
fidence that mercy will meet every want, cover 
every infirmity, strengthen against all temptations. 
" Yes !" answers the doubting soul again, " there 
is mercy, plenteous redemption offered to me now: 
pardon for the past, grace for the future; but I 
look before me, and I see all alons; the way 



192 THE EXHORTATION OF 

through this world, danger and delusions, and 
temptations to niortal sin. Shall I be able to 
maintain my hold upon God? Will not this 
weak heart falter in its trust, and fall from its 
hope? May I not disgrace the name of Christ, and 
come short at last ?" " Nay," replies the merciful 
exhortation, "He shall redeem Israel from all his 
iniquities^ This was included before, when the 
redemption was declared to be plenteous ; but here 
the promise is more particular. It reaches the 
very trouble of the soul ; it removes the last doubt. 
"Iniquities" are, indeed, our worst enemies. The 
iniquities that lie, it may be, latent and dormant 
in the heart, ready to assume baleful power at 
the call of the tempter; deliverance from our- 
selves, from our weaknesses, from our corruption, 
from the deceitfulness of our hearts. It is no 
tidings of salvation to tell us, that we shall find 
mercy in the end, if we may be left to our own 
strength before the end ; then we shall certainly 
fall ; but He, who undertook our salvation is 



THE PENITENT. 1 93 

almighty ; the fruit of his atoning work is infinite, 
and the Holy Spirit of the Father and the Son has 
covenanted to give grace to the end, wherever He 
applies the blood of Jesus. " He shall redeem 
Israel from all his iniquities." In the beginning 
of the Christian life, he is our Alpha ; and in the 
end, we shall find him our Omega. Author of 
salvation, he is its Finisher. Now the process is 
begun, and sanctification is not at once complete; 
but it shall be. Now some sins may be subdued 
and other sins yet dwell in us ; but " He shall 
redeem Israel from all his iniquities." The soul 
that trusts in him, shall have a complete deliver- 
ance, an entire victory, a perfect life. Now our 
sins rise between us and God. They impair the 
communion we should enjoy with him ; they pro- 
voke his chastening rod; but when all iniquity 
shall be taken away, then will God's mercy 
smile without a cloud, the holy soul drink in, pure 
and unmingled, the joy of his holy presence, and 
sorrow cease to wring the heart and wound the 
17 



194 EXHORTATION OF THE PENITENT. 

spirit, for there will be no use for sorrow, when 
there is an end of sin. 

Thus the penitent exhorts us to hope in God^ to 
hope in God only^ to hope in God's mercy only, 
to hope in God's mercy only through Christy and 
to hope to the end. The redemption is '* with him," 
not with ourselves ; the redemption is "plenteous," 
abundant for all our want ; the redemption shall 
be complete " from all our iniquities." 

O! precious grace of God our Saviour, in Christ 
Jesus our Lord ! Now it invites us to pardon ; 
for all our life it promises us grace ; and then, it 
opens heaven, holy, joyful and high, as the safe 
rest of our souls for evermore. What blessedness 
there is in such a hope! How gladly should we 
accept such mercy! how confidently rely upon 
such grace! how patiently, zealously, and cheer- 
fully hold out to the end. It finds us in the 

DEPTHS — IT EXALTS US TO THE SKIES. 



THE EXHORTATION OF THE PENITENT. 

(continued.) 

BELIGIOUS PKOFESSIOK 



How does the penitent exhort? 

I. By an open acknowledgment of the grace of 
God to his own soul, a public profession of his 
faith, and hope, and joy in Christ. 

This is the design of the whole psalm. It 
is a proclamation to assembled Israel, before the 
whole congregation of worshippers, that the peni- 
tent is a sinner saved by grace, through faith in 
the divine forgiveness, and that his expectation of 
eternal life is strons: and confident. 



1 96 THE EXHORTATION OF 

Such an open confession our beloved Master 
requires us to make in the use of his holy sacra- 
ments, which are appointed for the purpose of 
giving us an opportunity to make a formal decla- 
ration, that we know by experience his religion is 
true, and that we solemnly separate ourselves 
from the world, to his holy service, in fellowship 
with those who bear his name. How clearly this 
is enjoined upon us as the immediate duty of every 
sincere penitent, we may learn from many Scrip- 
tures, but especially from that very strong passage 
given by several evangelists: ''Whosoever, there- 
fore, shall confess me before men, him will I 
confess also before my Father which is in heaven; 
but whosoever shall deny me before men, him will 
I also deny before my Father which is in heaven" 
(Matt. X. 32, 33.). 

If you will refer to the connexion in which this 
passage stands, you will find that our Lord had 
been giving to the twelve their first commission as 
preachers of his gospel. He has encouraged them 



THE PENITENT. 197 

by promises, that his Spirit would be with them to 
give them hearts of courage and words of power; 
that his providence would watch over them as 
his very precious ones, and that at the last 
they would receive an abundant, eternal reward 
for all their labours and sufferings in his cause. 
At the same time he does not hide the fact, that 
their office would be one of great peril ; and that, 
as the disciples of a Master despised by the world 
and about to suffer a shameful death, they must 
expect to meet With wrong, contempt and perse- 
cution. But, lest any might shrink from th& 
danger and death, in the face of which their coa- 
fession of Christ was to be made, he tells them 
plainly, that he will acknowledge none to be 
Christians in the next world, who do not avow 
themselves to be Christians in this. There can be 
no misunderstanding his language. Whatever 
may be our respect for Christianity, our belief of 
its truth, or our supposed enjoyment of its comfort, 
unless we have made our religion known by any 



198 THE EXHORTATION OF 

open profession of it before men, he will declare 
before his Father in heaven that we are none of his. 
Now, if such a profession was absolutely required 
then, amidst the bitter trials of the early church, 
how much more are we bound to make it at a 
time when Christians are treated by the world 
with respect rather than violence ? An open pro- 
fession of faith in Christ is, therefore, essential to 
Christian character now, and to a good hope 
through grace of the life which is to come. 

It is due to the world. As the followers of Christ, 
we are bound to seek the salvation of our fellow 
men. Nor will our desires or prayers, however 
earnest, be enough ; we must make personal, active, 
zealous efforts to advance the great work. '* He 
that gathereth not with Christ, scattereth abroad." 
It is equally clear, that our exertions should be 
made in the way God has appointed. For as we 
are his servants, we are bound to do his work in 
the way He chooses to have it done, and not in 
that we may think best. It pleased God in earlier 



THE PENITENT, 199 

times to make known his will by angels and 
inspired prophets, and often to confirm their testi- 
mony by striking miracles. He might, if He 
chose, in our time, send through the world a mul- 
titude of radiant messengers from heaven to 
preach his gospel ,* and cause us daily to see 
such works of divine power as Moses, and Jesus, 
and the apostles wrought. But such is not his 
choice. He has completed the revelation of truth 
necessary for the salvation of the world, in 
the sacred canon of Scripture. He abundantly 
avouched Christianity to be his, by miracles at its 
beginning. He now employs men, themselves 
converted sinners, in the advancement of his 
cause. The manifest agency by which the world 
is to be brought back to God, is human. Chris- 
tians are the " lights of the world," " the salt of 
the earth," " witnesses for God," " epistles of 
Christ," and " temples of the Holy Ghost." The 
truth He has already given, repeated by their lips, 
diffused by their zeal, and illustrated by their 



200 THE EXHORTATION OF 

examples, is to save the world. Its efficiency is 
from God, by the blessing of the Holy Ghost, but 
the agency is in no sense supernatural, except as 
Christians are moved, strengthened and guided 
by the Holy Ghost, through the truth, which has 
been revealed in the word of God alone. This 
agency He has promised to bless, and has .blessed. 
No servants of his have been so successful, as 
humble, converted sinners, who have used the 
gospel, relying upon its sufficiency, by the divine 
blessing, to convert their fellow sinners. No 
miracles have been, or could be, more convincing 
than the transformations wrought by that gospel 
in the hearts and lives of sinful men. The 
responsibility of a world's salvation, therefore, 
rests upon those whom He has converted and 
called to be his servants in the gospel. 

Now, is it not plain, that the faith of a Chris- 
tian, to be of use in the world, should be known ? 
and how can it be known except it be avowed ? If 
the gospel, by divine power, has changed his heart, 



THE PENITENT. 201 

and made his life better, how shall it have due 
credit for its sanctifying grace, except he testifies 
before men that he has been born of God ? If, 
rejoicing in assurance of pardon and the love of 
God, he desires to recommend the gospel of his 
hope to his fellow sinners, how can he do so, with 
any appearance of honesty or likelihood of success, 
while he refuses to take part himself openly with 
Christ's people, and record his vows of service to 
God ? God does not give us our religion for our- 
selves alone ; but that, while it blesses us, it may 
by us bless the world. The light of hope, which 
He has kindled in our hearts, was meant to cheer 
others, and guide them in the way of truth; how 
dare we cover it up and hide it from men's eyes? 
The healing balm, which has given life to our 
broken hearts, should shed its fragrance all 
around, that others may be led to apply the same 
remedy. Our religion belongs to the world. We 
rob our fellow sinners so long as we keep it from 
them. 

18 



202 THE EXHORTATION OF 

If, therefore, we postpone a profession of reli- 
gion, we are very guilty, because we trifle with 
the souls of our fellow sinners. So far as our 
conduct has an influence, we encourage them to 
sin on and neglect Christ. We are responsible for 
their danger, it may be for their eternal ruin. 
None can tell how much good the concealed peni- 
tent might do, if he were an open Christian ; but 
it is certain that he does much evil as he is. It is 
difficult to discharge the obligations of a Chris- 
tian, but Christ has pledged himself to help all 
those who take up his cross; and, until we bear it 
openly, we have no promise to lean upon, while 
our obligations are not the less that we do not 
avow ourselves Christians, because we ought to 
avow ourselves on his side. Be assured, that 
Christ, who pities the world and loves to save 
sinners by the instrumentality of such as we are, 
will not deal lightly with us, if we ihus deny our 
aid to his good cause. 

It is due to the Church, To the Church, as we 



THE PENITENT. 203 

have seen, is committed the great work of con- 
verting the world. The burthen of this duty is 
immense, and Christians need all the sympathy, 
comfort and encouragement under it,- that they can 
receive. The greatest of all encouragements, next 
to the promise of God, is seeing the success of 
their labours in the gospel. It was among our 
Lord's most bitter trials that he was rejected of 
men ; that when he called, none answered ; and 
that all day long he stretched forth his hand, and 
no man regarded. So does the Christian's heart 
faint in the time when few avow themselves peni- 
tents ; while there is no joy this side of heaven 
like "the joy of harvest," when the work of the 
Lord is prospering in our hands. The angels in 
the presence of God are glad over one sinner that 
repenteth; but they have not the joy of the Chris- 
tian who has been the instrument of bringing that 
penitent out of his peril. For you, reader, the 
Church has been praying; Christians have been 
exhorting you by word and example to secure the 



204 THE EXHORTATION OF 

salvation of your soul ; if you have received any 
good influence from religion, it has been, among 
other means, through their prayers and exertions. 
Do you owe them no return? Should you not 
make their hearts glad by declaring that you too 
will be one of Christ's people, a witness of his 
grace, and a crown of their rejoicing? O how their 
hearts yearn over you! How they long and look 
for your coming out from the world, to take your 
place with them at the sacramental table! Shall 
they look again, and be again disappointed? 

Christians have a great work to do, and there 
are but few of them to do it. They need help, 
open, honest, avowed help. Every new accession 
to their number, every fresh labourer, that comes 
in answer to their prayers for more labourers in 
the vineyard, cheers their spirits. They work 
with renewed energy, because in you they see 
that they have one opponent the less, and one 
fellow labourer more, whose sympathy, prayers, 
and counsel, they may count upon. Will you 



THE PENITENT, 205 

not give them help to bear their burdens, rejoice 
with them in their joy, and weep with them in 
their sorrow? Do you not owe it to them for the 
Master's sake, whom they serve, and their own ? 
You may think- that you do sympathize with them, 
pray with them, and even labour with them in 
your concealed religion ; but they know nothing 
of what you hide from their eyes. As a secret 
friend, you are little better than an open enemy. 
Oh! come out of your hiding place and make their 
hearts glad! 

The Church has many enemies, who are con- 
tinually reviling and opposing the cause of Christ. 
Is it then, generous in you to shrink from the 
reproach which your brethren are bearing for 
their Master's sake, who bore " the contradiction 
of sinners against himself" for you? Perhaps 
the worst, certainly the most dangerous, enemies 
of the Church, are in her own bosom. You see 
how the good cause languishes from the incon- 
sistency of professors, and the malignant slanders 



206 THE EXHORTATION OF 

of the world. You believe the Church to be right. 
You mourn over the bickerings, the uncharitable- 
ness, the worldliness of those who call themselves 
Christians. You know the testimony which Chris- 
tians should give to the world. Come forward 
then and give it. Show the world, by the grace 
of Christ which is promised to you, what a Chris- 
tian is. Do you say, that you fear you yourself 
would fail in Christian duty, and perhaps bring 
dishonour upon the Christian name? Fail, you 
certainly would, were you to attempt it in your 
own strength; but are you not more sure to fail, 
when you will not use the means appointed to 
keep you steadfast? Christ has covenanted to be 
the strength of those who live near him, and keep 
their trust in him ; but you neither draw nigh to 
him nor rely upon him, while you refuse to follow 
him openly. Now you do dishonour him ; you 
do impede his cause; you are with those who 
reject, and revile, and oppose him ; for though 
you take no active part in the opposition, you will 



THE PENITENT. 207 

not come out from among his enemies, and take 
your place among his friends. If all were to act 
as you do, there would be no Church, no Sabbath, 
no sacraments, no Christian name ; and thus, so 
far as your conduct goes, you are verily guilty of 
destroying all the means of crrace. 

It is due to yourself. You are not only to be- 
lieve in Christ, that you may be saved ; but to 
"-^worh out your salvation with fear and trem- 
bling" (Phil. ii. 12.). A profession of failh in 
Christ is not merely an entrance upon a Christian 
life, but the means of strengthening and ani- 
mating us in it. For this reason, the sacramental 
board is crowned with bread, the emblem of 
nourishment, and wine, the emblem of joy. It is 
the means which Christ has divinely appointed; 
and, as has been observed, you have no right to 
expect his gracious furtherance in your endeavours 
after a holy life, except you use the means of his 
appointment, any more than you can expect 
strength of body without using food and drink. 



208 THE EXHORTATION OF 

An open profession of faith will strengthen 
your inward resolutions. You will be no longer 
a wavering, undecided thing ; afraid to follow the 
world into sin, and yet afraid to avow your choice 
of better principles. Confess yourself candidly a 
servant of Christ; a weak, imperfect, sinful ser- 
vant, it may be, but an honest, well-meaning, 
well-endeavouring one. You will then have more 
respect for yourself as a religious person. You 
will feel the force of your position before the 
world ,• and, bearing the name of Christ, you will 
be more careful, lest that holy name be abused 
through your negligence or wrong. You will 
have a thousand promises to rest upon that you 
have not now; for every promise made to the 
Church you will share in. You will have the 
benefit of many thousand prayers, that you have 
not now; for every prayer for the Church, breathed 
by Christians in private or public throughout the 
world, will be put up for you. You will have the 
sincere love, sympathy, counsel and good company 



THE PENITENT. 209 

of all God's true people; for they will know you, 
greet you, and hold fellowship with you as one 
of Christ's family. 

The precious doctrines of Christ's incarnation, 
passion and power, are the bread of life and the 
wine of the kingdom to the believer in Jesus. 
Except we so eat his flesh and drink his blood, 
there is no life in us (John vi. 48-59.); but these 
precious doctrines are made to pass before the 
believer in the sacrament of the supper, with pecu- 
liar clearness. He is led, as it were, to the very 
foot of the cross ; he sees the body of Jesus broken 
in the breaking of the bread, and the blood of 
Jesus shed in the out-pouring of the wine; and the 
emblems, so significantly expressive of those spi- 
ritual realities, are presented to him personally, 
that partaking of them himself, he may know the 
atonement was made for him, by appropriating its 
benefits to his own soul. He is thus by faith a 
participator of Christ's grace, a member of his 
blessed body, an heir of immortal glory with 



210 THE EXHORTATION OF 

Christ his elder Brother. Every time the sacra- 
ment is repeated, his vows are repeated, his faith 
strengthened, his hope exalted, his zeal inspired ; 
for, though he may sometimes, like the two dis- 
ciples on their way to Emmaus, walk in doubt 
and heaviness, mourning the absence of his Lord, 
he will not long be left thus, for Christ delights to 
make himself known in the breaking of bread 
(Luke xxiv. 13-82.). 

Hence it is the experience of every believer, 
that a proper use of the sacramental supper, emi- 
nently contributes to his edification and Christian 
enjoyment; not because then only he relies on 
Christ; or has communion with him, (which he 
may do when alone, or with the church, or even 
when in the world); but because at the holy 
table there is a concentration of his privileges, 
a solemn confirmation of his faith and hope, with 
a foretaste of the heavenly feast. Therefore, he 
longs for an opportunity of meeting with Christ 
and his people at the family board; he goes in the 
strength of its refreshment many days; and longs 



THE PENITENT. 211 

after another like season, for tl]^e renewal of his 
satisfaction ; the successive sacraments marking 
successive stations, as he advances from strength 
unto strength, until he appears before God in 
Zion above (Ps. Ixxxiv. 7.). 

O my friend, you need grace to subdue your 
sins, to remove your doubts, to console your sor- 
row, to assist the Church, to save the souls of 
sinners around you ; refuse not then the grace, 
which may be yours by an open profession of 
your faith in Christ at his holy table! 

It is dice to Christ. Ah ! dear reader, can we 
ever do enough for him, who has done, is still 
doing, and will do throughout eternity, so much 
for us? If you have any faith in him, any love 
for him, you will say, that all you are and have, is 
too poor a return for his eternal, priceless love. It is 
but little at the best, that you can do for him ; but 
you can make a profession of your faith in him, and 
love to him ; and, except you do this, He declares 
that yoQ do nothing which he will or can accept 



212 THE EXHORTATION OF 

at your hands. Will you not render Him this 
slight service ; slight in the pains it costs, but pre- 
cious in his sight and in its consequences ? 

Consider that it is his positive command. It is 
that acknowledgment of your allegiance to him, 
which, as the Lord of the Church, and the Master 
who has redeemed you to himself as one of his 
peculiar people, he insists upon from you. His 
design was, that thus a visible exhibition of his 
spiritual Church should be made to the world ; nor 
are we without frequent proof that the celebration 
of his dying love by his people, as they gather 
themselves among the emblems of his passion, is 
employed by the Holy Ghost as a means peculiarly 
adapted to convert the careless, and peculiarly 
blessed. Not to join in it, then, is to withhold 
your co-operation from the edifying service, and 
to cast oblivion over the cross. 

It is a most affectionate command. He does 
not bid us remember his avenging power, his 
wrath against the wicked, or even his absolute 



THE PENITENT. 213 

right to our obedience; but his love, the claims he 
has upon us as friends, as sinners whom he has 
saved by his devotion for us. It is not a requisi- 
tion of labour or penance, but of love to Him in 
the enjoyment of his love to us. It is an invita- 
tion to sit with Him and his people in close confi- 
dential fellowship at a feast of love; to receive 
upon our own souls the application of his saving 
grace; to join ourselves to him in an everlasting 
covenant, closely, vitally, as the members of a 
living body are united to its living head. He 
declares that he delights in having us near hinij 
in holding familiar conversation with us, in im- 
parting to us his truth, like heavenly bread, in 
pouring out to us his joy, like the wine of God's 
vineyard, and in giving us foretastes of the ever- 
lasting feast which he has prepared for the 
redeemed above. 

Death is ever solemn, and few are so insensible 
as not to listen attentively when the dying speak, 
or not to consider their wishes then expressed, as 



214 THE EXHORTATION OF 

peculiarly binding ; but our best and truest Friend 
gave us this command when He saw the hour 
approaching in which he would die the bitterest, 
shamefullest death that ever wrung a mortal body 
or an immortal spirit, to deliver us from eternal 
death, and open for us life everlasting by his own 
extreme anguish and humiliation. It is the special 
service, which He ordained with his latest breath, 
for the perpetuation of his memory by the friends 
he left on earth, when he ascended to heaven. 

The Lord of glory offers to acknowledge you, 
sinner and child of the dust as you are ; will you 
not acknowledge the Lord of glory? He shrank 
from no trials, that he might purchase the right to 
offer you salvation; will you not undertake the 
honourable trials of an open Christian life for 
Him? It may bring upon you some reproaches 
from a wicked world, but Oh ! what shame and 
contempt He bore for you! Do you not desire to 
be one of that blessed, shining throng, who shall 
stand around his throne, and bless his name with 



THE PENITENT. 215 

harp and hallelujah for ever? Yet you hear that 
He says, he will deny you before his Father, if 
you deny him by not confessing him before men. 

You owe it to Christ, He enjoins this pro- 
fession on you for the love He bears to dying 
sinners, whom you should lead to his cross ; for 
the love He bears to his Church, which you should 
cheer by your example and aid with your zeal ; 
for the love He bears to your own soul, the edifica- 
tion of which you should endeavour after by all 
the means of grace ; for the love He bears to his 
own holy name, which you should vindicate from 
a scoffing world. 

You will have many excuses rising in your 
mind : You feel yourself too unworthy for such 
a vow ; but all the worthiness He asks is a con- 
fession of your own unworthiness, and a reliance 
on his infinite righteousness for acceptance. 

You fear that you will not act up to your pro- 
fession ; but He promises you all needed grace, 
and his strength is sufficient for you. 



216 THE EXHORTATION OF 

The inconsistencies of professing Christians 
stumble and discourage you ; but it is your busi- 
ness to save your own soul, and to show by divine 
help the true effects of Christian faith. 

You are sometimes tempted to doubt whether 
you are a Christian at all ; but if you are not, it 
is high time you should be; and the want of 
religion is a greater argument for your attempting 
to gain it by divine help. 

Whatever you may urge, changes not the posi- 
tiveness of the command, or the truth of the 
declaration, that if you confess him not. He will 
not acknowledge you. 

It may now seem a slight thing to withhold 
such a profession ; but will it be a slight thing to 
stand confounded in that day, when Christ shall 
deny you before his Father and the holy angels, 
and the glorified church, because you denied him? 

And, Oh! remember, that if it be your duty to 
make a profession of faith, to postpone it is a 
grievous sin. Let not a single sacrament pass 



THE PENITENT. 217 

by without improving it; for, though you may 
have a hundred more opportunities, there will be 
on your conscience the heavy guilt of having 
broken a command of Christ, neglected a privi- 
lege of grace, and refused a testimony to religion. 
Can you be a true penitent, and thus wilfully 
increase vour guilt? 



19 



XI. 

THE EXHORTATION OF THE PENITENT. 

(CONTINUED.) 

RELIGIOUS EXAMPLE. 



11. The penitent exhorts by his life. 

As we have already seen, God employs the 
instrumentality of Christians for the building up 
of his Church, and the conversion of the world. 
Their Christian virtues, which are the fruit of his 
grace, are the proofs of his converting and sanc- 
tifying power. This is the idea of the apostle 
Peter, when, in his first Epistle (ii. 9.), he says to 
his fellow Christians : " Ye are a chosen genera- 
tion, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar 
people; that ye should show forth the praises 



220 THE EXHORTATION OF 

(energies) of Him, who hath called you out of 
darkness into his nnarvellous light." Believers 
are ** the leaven cast into the lump," which should 
diffuse itself "until the whole is leavened;" nor 
should the weakness of the instrumentality detract 
from our zeal or courage, for it is through our 
weakness that the strength of Christ is made per- 
fect and manifest (2 Cor. xii. 9.); as the apostle 
asserts : "We have this treasure in earthen vessels, 
that the excellency of the power may be of God, 
and not of us" (2 Cor. iv. 7.). 

A profession of religion, therefore, does not 
constitute a religious life; but is an avowal of our 
purpose to live, by the grace of Christ, according 
to the commandment and example of Christ. Our 
faith must be confessed, but its genuineness must 
be shown by our works (James ii. 17-26.); " for 
with the heart man believeth u?ito righteousness, 
and with the mouth confession is made unto sal- 
vation" (Rom. X. 10.). As God not only declares 
himself to be the Creator in his word, but demon- 



THE PENITENT, 221 

strates his glorious attributes by his works ; so 
not only does he declare himself to be the Re- 
Creator of the soul, but demonstrates his sancti- 
fying grace by the believer's works : '* for we are 
his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto 
good works, which God had before ordained that 
we should walk in them" (Ephes. ii. 10.). If, 
then, the end of our original creation, be the glory 
of God, how much more is it the end of our new 
creation unto spiritual life? and how is our duty 
to live for his glory, enhanced by the price of our 
redemption, the blood of Christ, and the riches of 
our inheritance above the skies ? A mere pro- 
fession of belief in certain doctrines, will be of 
little profit to our fellow men, and little glory to 
God ; since the avowed design of the gospel is to 
make men better, and to prepare them by a good 
life on earth, for an eternal life of holiness in 
heaven. Holy principle in the heart will mani- 
fest itself in the outward conduct. We know a 
man to be honest or charitable, not by his pro- 



222 THE EXHORTATION OF 

fessions, but by his honest and charitable actions; 
so we know a man to be a Christian only by his 
acting like Christ. '' He that saith he abideth in 
Him, ought himself also so to walk even as He 
walked" (1 John ii. 6.). Our beloved Master not 
only taught the truths of his holy religion, but 
exhibited in his own conduct the virtues which he 
enjoined, " leaving us an example that we should 
follow in his steps, who did no sin, neither was 
guile found in his mouth" (1 Peter ii. 21, 22.); so 
are we not only to profess and spread the truth, 
but also to prove by our example, the purity, holi- 
ness, gentleness, and goodness of the Christian 
character. Men may or may not read the Scrip- 
lures, or listen to the preaching of the gospel ; 
they may or may not give their minds to the con- 
sideration of the truth, sufficiently for the under- 
standing of it; but, when a Christian before their 
eyes lives like a Christian, the truth is forced upon 
their attention, and by a concise logic they are 
constrained to admit, that the tree must be good 



THE PENITENT. 223 

which bears such good fruit. Nay, the very 
people, who, from levity of disposition, or weak- 
ness of mind, are the least likely to reason closely 
about religion, are the most likely to be affected 
by the conduct of those around them. Hence the 
false maxim, '* Example is better than precept," 
derives no little plausibility from the fact, that the 
greater part of the world are mor*e easily led 
through imitation, than governed by authority 
and principle. We are to avail ourselves of this 
imitativeness in human nature, by leading good 
lives, while we check its evil by openly professing 
that all our good is derived from God. Were a 
man, acting in other respects from right princi- 
ples, to conceal his belief of the gospel, his 
conduct would be rather against religion than for 
it, as showing that it was not necessary to a good 
life ; but, having declared himself to be a Chris- 
tian, sinful and weak by nature, yet relying upon 
the grace of the Holy Ghost, all his good works 
become proofs of the gospel's sanctifying power; 



224 THE EXHORTATION OF 

while his evil doings are as manifestly inconsis- 
tencies with his profession. If he be cheerful, 
patient and resigned, anaidst the trials and diffi- 
culties of the world, men are struck with the 
contrast to their own conduct, and trace the dif- 
ference to his religion. If he be kind, gentle and 
courteous, meek under insult and forgiving wrong, 
where the natural temper would be selfish, irasci- 
ble and revengeful ; men mark the change, and 
see in it the transformation of grace. If he deny 
himself, living above the world, resisting its temp- 
tations, and ever crucifying his lower tendencies, 
men will recognize him as a pilgrim through 
earth to a better country, and, therefore, content 
with little here, in the hope of a glorious satisfac- 
tion hereafter. If he be affectionately earnest in 
recommending the Saviour he has found, to his 
fellow sinners, that they also may become par- 
takers with him of the same blessed, sanctifying 
hope ; men will acknowledge the honesty of his 
creed, and the benevolent zeal which it inspires. 



THE PENITENT. 225 

Hence, ever since the first promulgation of Chris- 
tianity, it has had its greatest successes when 
Christians have been most devoted to the prac- 
tical duties of Christianity. It is comparatively in 
vain, that the preacher declares the truth, if the 
lives of the church do not answer to his declara- 
tions. The oft quoted couplet of the ethical poet: 

" For modes of faith let senseless bigots fight, 
His can't be wrong whose life is in the right" — 

is self-contradictory; for it first assumes, that 
faith has no practical controul over the life, and 
then asserts that a right life can only proceed 
from a right faith. If a right faith be necessary 
to a right life, we should search, and even contend 
for it; but, on the other hand, while we avow the 
right faith, we should be zealous to prove that it 
is right by the rectitude of our practice. Faith 
and works are inseparably connected, for as there 
can be no faith without works, so there can be no 
works without faith. The error lies in attempt- 
20 



226 THE EXHORTATION OF 

ing to consider them apart from each other. 
When the avowal of faith in Christ and the prac- 
tice of Christ's precepts go together, they are as 
irresistible as moral means can be. 

Our Saviour, in the Sermon on the Mount, 
illustrates this doctrine by a figure so apt and 
impressive, that we cannot do better than devote 
a little time to its study; "Ye are the light of the 
world. A city that is set on a hill, cannot be hid. 
Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a 
bushel, but on a candlestick ; and it giveth light 
unto all that are in the house. Let your light so 
shine before men, that they may see your good 
works, and glorify your Father which is in hea- 
ven" (Matt. v. 14-16.). 

First: It is affirmed, that the disciples of Christ 
have light. Light is sometimes put for know- 
ledge or truth, in opposition to the darkness of 
ignorance or error; and sometimes for holiness in 
opposition to the darkness of sin. Here both are 
meant, that is to say, holiness as the result of 



THE PENITENT. 227 

belief in the gospel. The true disciple has light, 
for the effect of the gospel is to " turn us from 
darkness unto light," which, we learn from the 
parallelism of the text, is " from the power of 
Satan unto God" (Acts xxvi. 18.); and the apos- 
tie Peter, in an afore-cited passage, speaks of our 
being " called out of darkness into His marvellous 
light (1 Pet. ii. 9.). The light of the Christian 
is not original with him ; but he is as a candle 
lighted by another hand, and from another burn- 
ing luminary, for the purpose of giving light. 
Our blessed Lord is the true Light (John i. 9.), 
sent from " the Father of lights." He says of 
himself: " I am the light of the world : he that 
followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but 
shall have the light of life" (John viii. 12.); 
"For," says the apostle, ''God, who commanded 
the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in 
our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of 
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" 
(2 Cor. iv. 6.). His disciples are intended to be 



228 THE EXHORTATION OF 

as SO many lesser lights, deriving their shining 
property from him. For, although Jesus Christ is 
the true Light, shining for the glory of God in 
their salvation, the greater number of men are 
still in darkness. He has arisen upon his Church 
"with healing in his wings," but not on the whole 
world, as He will shine in his millennial noon-day 
splendour; but as the stars, far above the earth, 
catch the light of the sun and reflect it upon us, so 
believers in the elevation of their faith, receive and 
reflect upon others the rays of Christ shed upon 
their souls. The light is called our own, in the 
sense that it is entrusted to us ; but still it is the 
light of Christ, entrusted to us for the special pur^ 
pose of the divine glory in the enlightening of our 
fellow- men. For 

Secondly: We are to '* let our light shine." It 
is the property of light to shine. We could not 
define light better than as, That which shines. 
Indeed, if our criticism were nice, we should find, 
that the word rendered lights is a derivative of the 



THE PENITENT. 229 

verb, to shine, and not the verb a derivative from 
the noun. Light must shine. The smallest spark, 
the slightest twinkle is in contrast to darkness, 
though obstacles may be put between it and the 
eye to hinder its being seen. So certainly will 
holy principle^ when manifested, be distinguished 
from the ungodliness of the world. We may also 
cause or suffer our light to grow dim or go out, 
for as we said before, it is entrusted to our care. 
Thus a flame, to burn freely, must be fed, and the 
oil of holy principle is the truth. When, there- 
fore, the disciple neglects to study and meditate 
upon the doctrines of salvation, he refuses to let 
his light shine as it should. A lamp needs to be 
trimmed. The oil must be carefully guarded 
from admixture with other matter, or the wick 
becomes thickened and clogged. So, though di- 
vine wisdom comes from above, pure (James iii. 
17.), there is much sin in the heart, which, unless 
we take great care, will mingle with it and dim its 
brightness. The glass or medium within which a 



230 THE EXHORTATION OF 

flame burns, may be clouded by foul breath, or 
an accumulation of dust, and thus its lustre be 
obstructed; so, when there is some divine grace 
in the heart, a Christian may allow worldly 
feeling, or an acquisition of worldly things to 
diminish the beneficial effects of his religion on 
the world. A lamp may even be well filled, well 
trimmed, and very bright, yet placed in such a 
position that no one can see it; like a candle 
under a bushel-measure, when the house will be 
as dark, as if there were no light at all ; nay, as 
soon as the portion of the confined air necessary 
to combustion is exhausted, it will go out. Thus 
a Christian (if such a thing were possible) may 
so withdraw himself from his fellow-men, re- 
fusing to manifest his religion by his practice, 
that no one will take notice of him, and all the 
benefit of his religion be lost; while such is the 
nature of Christian principle, that without exer- 
cise in the relative duties of life, it will wane 
away and die of itself. In this way the end of 



THE PENITENT. 231 

grace may be frustrated so far as our agency is 
concerned. Therefore our blessed Lord says, 
that we must not only '' let our light shine," bu 
"50 shine that men may see our good works." 

Thirdly: The motive for this manifestation of 
Christian principle in holy living, is, *^ that men 
glorify our Father which is in heaven." Men do 
not light a candle for the candle's sake; nor does 
God cause the sun, and moon, and stars to shine 
for their own sakes. His glory is the purpose of 
all that He does ; and, in giving light to the 
Christian, He means that not only the salvation 
of the Christian himself shall be to his glory, but 
that his good works may induce others to glorify 
the source of all li^ght, our Father in heaven. 
By the demonstrative influence of the good works 
done by his true disciples, it is his purpose, that 
his truth shall prevail for the salvation of the 
world. The light we have is not our own, but 
entrusted to us for the glory of God ; and, there- 
fore, it is a breach of trust (the worst kind of rob- 



232 THE EXHORTATION OP 

bery), not to live so that God will receive glory 
from our lives. The light is not our own, but 
given to us for a specific purpose. God needs 
not any return at our hands to himself imme- 
diately, but has appointed our fellow-men as the 
recipients of the tribute due. Their benefit is 
the channel by which our gratitude and our duty 
are to reach his throne. They are linked to us 
by a thousand relations, all derived from and 
terminating in the heavenly Father of all. Our 
obligations to God are, therefore, a debt due to 
the world ; as the apostle felt when he said : " I 
am a debtor to the Greeks and Barbarians, both 
to the wise and unwise; so, as much as in me is, 
I am ready to preach the gospel to them which 
be at Rome also" (Rom. i. 14-15.). In the same 
degree that the Christian is sensible of the grace 
of God towards hmiself, will his zeal be great for 
the salvation of sinners, and he will let his light 
shine for their advantage. He cannot withhold it 
without robbery; without cheating them of the 



THE PENITENT. 233 

good God intended for them by his good works. 
Therefore, his love for God will awaken in him 
pity for their sorrows, sorrow for their sins, de- 
sire of their happiness here and hereafter. The 
love of God in his heart v/ili shine through his 
countenance, distil from his lips, breathe by his 
prayers, employ his hands, urge his feet, spend 
his breathy consecrate his time, and exert all his 
influence, that God may be glorified and man 
may be blessed. His ambition to glorify his God 
by his fellow-men goes beyond earth. He lets 
his light shine, that they may be sanctified unto 
God, and the mighty cloud of spiritual witnesses, 
beholding their conversion, may take up a song 
of universal joy, and distant worlds re-echo the 
acclamations of praise unto Him, who by his 
grace of wisdom and power has brought back to 
himself and to happiness the dead in sin and the 
lost in guilt. 

To take up again the main tenor of our dis- 
course, it is clear, that our lives should be a con- 



234 THE EXHORTATION OF 

tinual hymn of praise to God, and a continual 
exhortation to our fellow-men. No man can 
claim a secret religion. If it do not show itself 
by good works for the glory of God in the good 
of others, it does not exist. '' Pure religion and 
undefiled before God and the Father, is this ; to 
visit the widows and fatherless in their affliction, 
and to keep himself unspotted from the world" 
(James i. 27.). No one should be at ease, nor 
think himself secure in a state of grace, except 
when like his Master he is " going about doing 
good," and when he perceives that good is done. 

It is clear, also, that the Christian should live 
among men. Separation from the world is en-» 
joined upon us, but that it means separation from 
the principles and practices of the world, not 
from our fellow-men, is proved by the example 
of Jesus Christ, who was continually among men, 
doing them good by word and deed, while he was 
<' holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from 
sinners" (Heb. vii. 26.). Our religion is per- 



> THE PENITENT. 235 

sonal, and, therefore, to be cultivated in private, 
personal connmunion with God ; but it is also 
social, and, therefore, to be exercised in associa- 
tion with our fellow-men. Love to our neigh- 
bour as ourselves, is as essential to a Christian 
spirit, as love to God. If the love of God fill our 
hearts, it naust inspire us with love to our fellow- 
sinners; for " God so loved the world as to give 
his only-begotlen Son, that whosoever believeth 
in him might not perish, but have everlasting 
life;" and how can love be known but by its 
fruits? '' Whoso hath this world's goods, and 
seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his 
bowels of compassion against him, how dwelleth 
the love of God in him" (1 John iii. 17.)'? This 
is still more true of spiritual good, which we 
may impart to the spiritually destitute. 

It is among men that our duties lie. There is 
the vineyard, into which the Master has sent us 
to work ; there the good seed is to be sown ; 
there our light is to shine; there the leaven of 



236 THE EXHORTATION OF 

the Church is to work ; and there our Master's ex- 
ample leads us. There, also, is the theatre, oa 
which we are to act our parts for the glory of 
God ; the field of exercise, where we are to 
strengthen the powers of our souls for ina mortal 
life. It is true, that it is difficult to maintain our 
character, surrounded by the world's tempations ; 
yet experience has shown that it is not less, but 
more difficult to maintain our steadfastness in 
solitude. If the graces of the Christian character 
were negative, and it were enough not to do 
wrong, we might content ourselves in such slug- 
gish dullness ; but, on the contrary, our duties are 
active, we are to do good, and not to seek the 
advancement of the divine glory, is sin. Christ 
has redeemed us for his own '' peculiar people," 
that we might be '^ zealous of good works." 
We have no choice in the matter; but shall find 
in this, as in every thing else, that the way He 
marks out for us is best for us ; and that it is 
safer to be found in the way of duty, than 



THE PENITENT. 237 

shrinking from it. We are wrong in running 
fool-hardily upon temptation ; but to desert our 
duty, that we may escape temptation, is a worse 
sin than w'e should be likely to commit by meet- 
ing temptation in attempting our duty. Such a 
course is not holy jealousy, but cowardice, com- 
mitting greater sin to avoid a less. Even if there 
be danger, it is what we are forewarned we shall 
meet. Our Christian life is a fight, which we 
must overcome in, not fly from. Our divine Lord 
has promised strength, if we are faithful in his 
service; and '' greater is He that is for us, than 
all that can be against us." *' Finally, my bre- 
thren," says that notable champion, who put his 
own rule fairly to the test, *' be strong in the 
Lord, and in the power of his might" (Ephes. 
vi. 19.). He has provided for us armour of 
proof, if we keep our face to the foe, but 
none if we turn to flight; "Put on the whole 
armour of God, that ye may be able to stand 
against all the wiles of the devil. . . . Wherefore, 



238 THE EXHORTATION OF 

take unto 3^ou the whole armour of God, that ye 
may be able to stand in the evil day, and, having 
done all, to stand. Stand, therefore, having your 
loins girt about with truth, and having on the 
breastplate of righteousness ; and your feet shod 
v^ith the preparation of the gospel of peace; 
above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith 
ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of 
the wicked; and take the helmet of salvation, 
and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of 
God" (13-17 vs.). The coward, who skulks 
from the post of duty because it is the post of 
danger, may not wear such honourable insignia 
of His sacramental host, who is the Captain of 
our salvation ; or, if, having attempted his duty, 
he becomes alarmed, and turns away, he is sure 
to receive grievous, perhaps fatal, wounds in his 
defenceless back. The Lord has promised a 
crown and a glory worth all the dust and strug- 
gles of the conflict: " Be thou faithful unto death 
and I will give thee a crown of life" (Rev. ii.lO.); 



THE PENITENT. 239 

" To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with 
me on my throne, even as I also overcame and 
am set down down with my Father on his throne'' 
(Rev. iii. 21.). The Master's sorest temptation 
was in the wilderness, when hungry and alone; 
his greatest triumphs were won when doing good 
among men. We need his Spirit, indeed, to keep 
us safe; but that Spirit is always to be met with, 
when we are following in his steps. Occasional, 
frequent, daily retirement from the busy scenes 
of life, is necessary, to keep the Christian's temper 
holy, humble and heavenly; so the Master was 
wont to retire, that he might refresh his Spirit in 
communion with his Father; but secret devotion 
is a means of preparing for a Christian life, not 
the Christian life itself. Here it is necessary, be- 
cause of our infirmities and temptations ; but 
above, when the life is perfect, the worship and 
the service are ever with an innumerable company 
of saints and angels. Seclusion from the world, 
to which v/e are so much tempted when pressed 



240 THE EXHORTATION OF 

by difficulties and chagrined by failures, is not the 
choice for a true penitent. The selfishness of the 
anchorite, the torpor of the monk, or the fan- 
tastic raptures of the quietist, have no place in 
the Christian's experience. It is putting our can- 
dle under a bushel ; abstracting the leaven from 
the lump, the salt from the world; desertion of 
Christ; robbery of God, robbery of fellow man, 
and robbery of our own souls. 

The whole aim of our lives should be the glory 
of God in the salvation of sinners, not excluding our 
own. Our light is to shine, not for our own praise, 
but ihe praise of God. If we carry this rule in 
our hearts, it will uplift us above many tempta- 
tions, and keep us steadfast in an onward course. 
Then we shall obey, simply and unhesitatingly, 
what God commands. There will be no ques- 
tionings about expediency, no doubt between this 
or the other methods of doing good, no discourage- 
ment because the blessing of success is delayed. 
As Christ's servants, we will do his work, just as 



THE PENITENT. 241 

He orders it to be done; our own judgment has 
nothing to do with the matter, for His is omniscient 
and infallible; our personal success is nothing, so 
that His is sure, for we are united to him, and he 
rewards according to fidelity in serving; our per- 
sonal defeats are nothing, for He must triumph in 
the end, and knows best how to secure his own 
glory. In a word, we will work only as instru- 
ments, whose whole duty lies in using the means 
according to his directions, leaving to Him the 
giving of the increase. Then we shall not be 
fretful and impatient with our fellow Christians or 
fellow sinners, because they requite ill our attempts 
to do them good, for our Master bears with them; 
the Father is long suffering both with them 
and us ; the Holy Spirit continues to strive in their 
hearts and ours. If God, whose is the glory, be 
so patient, and so placable, what right have we, 
his servants, to complain? Alas! how much of 
our trials, and mortifications, and quarrels, and 
consequent failures, arise from seeking our own 
21 



242 THE EXHORTATION OF 

glory in what we profess to do for the glory of 
God ! How prone we are to frown, when any doubt 
that our plans are best, or seek to recommend 
another, or trench upon our dignity, or cross our 
convenience ! If the glory of God were truly our 
aim, there would be none of this ; if the salvation 
of men were truly our aim, there would be none 
of it. The same love to God and man which 
prompts the Christian service, keeps him humble ; 
considerate of another's infirmities, because mind- 
ful of his own; meek, because wishing to win; 
gentle, because anxious to persuade ; long suf- 
fering, because determined to persevere. 

Such a life is, indeed, an exhortation, saying 
in deed and in temper, more eloquent than words; 
*' Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord 
there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemp- 
tion. For He shall redeem Israel from all his 
iniquities.'- 

Very awful is the Christian's responsibility. 
His character, his life before the world, is the 



THE PENITENT. 243 

testimony of God to the truth of his religion ; the 
evidence of our favour with him ; the main 
instrument, next to the promulgation of his truth, 
by which He chooses to accomph'sh the salvation 
of men ; the manifestation of the divine glory in 
the effects of his gospel. 

The Christian is a temple of the Holy Ghost, a 
shrine in which the sacred fire is deposited, where 
the sacred lamp burns ; how holy should he be ! 

He is the lis^ht of the world, sent to lead men 
away from hell, and bring them on towards 
heaven; how careful should he be! 

He is the instrument of Jehovah's praise, of the 
Saviour's mercy, of the Spirit's power ; how de- 
voted should he be ! 

" Wherefore I beseech you, brethren, by the 
mercies of God, that you present your bodies 
(i. e. your lives on earth) a living sacrifice, holy, 
acceptable to God, which is your reasonable ser- 
vice" (Rom. xii. 1.). " Finally, brethren, what- 
soever things are true, whatsoever things are 



244 EXHORTATION OF THE PENITENT. 

honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever 
things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, 
whatsoever things are of good report ; if there be 
any virtue, and if there be any praise ; think of 
these things !" (Phil. iv. 8.). Amen ! 



XII. 

THE EXHORTATION OF THE PENITENT. 

(continued.) 

RELIGIOUS CONVERSATION. 



III. The penitent exhorts by his words. 
The faculty of articulate speech, is so distin- 
guishing an attribute of hunnan nature, over the 
lower creation, that the psalniist calls his tongue 
his "glory" (Ivii. 8. cviii. 2.); and the apostle 
James says, that " the tongue is a little meniber 
and boasteth great things." That which God 
gave to be the vehicle of thought, affection, en- 
treaty, persuasion and connmand, must be mighty 
as to its influences for good or evil.*' Hence the 

* See the author's Oration before the Students of the 
Andover Theological Seminary. 



246 THE EXHORTATION OF 

importance of governing the tongue is insisted 
upon by the apostle just cited, through a whole 
chapter (iii.)> ^^^ he does not hesitate to say, that 
if any man " seem to be religious, and ' bindeth 
not his tongue,' that hisreb'gion is vain" (i. 26.); 
while, " if any man offend not in word, the same 
is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole 
body" (iii. 2.). So David resolves : " I will 
take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my 
tongue ; I will keep my mouth as with a bridle, 
when the wicked are before me" (xxxix. 1.); and 
prays: " Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; 
keep the door of my lips" (cxli. 3.). Our blessed 
Lord also says, that the inward character and 
dispositions of a man show themselves in his talk: 
^'Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth 
speaketh" (Matt. xii. 34.). The power of speech 
over the minds of men, is seen in the history of 
eloquence among the ancients, and the care with 
which it was cultivated by those ambitious of rule; 
nor, though the invention of printing has greatly 
changed the state of things, is its charm lost, for 



THE PENITENT. 247 

r 

Still both wise and unwise rush to hear the skilful 
orator, while that style of writing, which most 
resembles good talking, is ever the most attractive 
and likely to persuade. In the means of grace, 
speech has a high place assigned to it. The Son 
of God, as the shining forth of the divine glory, 
and the manifest character of the divine Being, by 
whom God declares himself to us (Heb. i. 1-3.), 
is officially designated as the Word. He kindled 
the lips of the ancient prophets, that by them he 
might speak to men. He himself, while on earth, 
was a preacher of righteousness, not merely in 
addressing crowds, but also in conversation with 
smaller groups and single persons, making known 
the truth of his law and grace of his gospel, by 
the accents of a human tongue, at once so grand, 
simple, tender, and direct to the heart, that not the 
least testimony to his manliest divinity, was the 
report of the Sanhedrim's officers; " Never man 
spake like this man" (John vii. 46.). After his 
ascension. He sent down cloven tongues, like as 
of fire, upon the heads of the human preachers to 



248 THE EXHORTATION OF 

whom he had committed his gospel, at once 
assuring the endowment, and asserting the value 
of a various and glowing eloquence for the work 
they had in charge ; and it is remarkable, that 
their written expositions of Christian doctrine are 
not after the fashion of formal essays, but epistles, 
resembling so much familiar, though dignified, 
speech, as to make us feel as though the words 
came audibly from the sacred page. Still " it 
pleases" Him, who ever takes the best method of 
accomplishing his purposes, and who perfectly 
understands the hearts He has made, *' by the 
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe" 
(1 Cor. i. 21.). It is thus the ordinance of God, 
that his truth should be best made known by man 
to man, in the speech of man, with the eye and 
gesture of a man, the human soul shedding forth 
its sympathy with kindred souls. That this method 
of usefulness is not confined to authoritative preach- 
ing, we know from the apostolical injunction to 
^^exhort one another daily" (Heb. iii. 13.), as well 
as from the regard and remembrance which the 



THE PENITENT. 249 

Lord had for those, who showed their fear of him 
and meditation upon his name, by speaking often 
one to another (Mai. iii, 16.). 

1. It is natural that we should talk with those 
around us, of things important and interesting; 
that we should offer them advice in difficulties, 
warning in danger, sympathy in trial, and remon- 
strance in error ; it is, therefore, characteristic of 
the penitent's better nature, that he should en- 
deavour by his conversation to persuade his fellow 
sinners from the way of death, and help them in 
the way of life. It is a means of doing good 
within the reach of every Christian. If we can 
speak to our fellow men, we can speak to them of 
Christ. We should consider it most unfriendly, 
if w^e saw their health, or property, or character 
in jeopardy, and knew how the threatening evil 
might be averted, yet did not tell them of it ; how 
much more should Christian friendship move us 
to speak of what concerns their spiritual and 
eternal well being? We need neither learning nor 
22 



250 THE EXHORTATION OF 

eloquence, other than what the grace of God and 
an earnest honesty will give, for such a service; 
and when we speak in the spirit of Christ, we may 
rely upon the grace of Christ to give us words, 
and our words a proper influence. The Scripture 
makes the neglect of this faithful office a sign of 
coldness, amounting to enmity against our fellows: 
«' Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart; 
thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and 
not suffer sin upon him" (Lev. xix. 17.). It is a 
duty which we owe to God and our brother for 
Christ's sake, which we cannot omit, without diso- 
bedience to express divine commandment, and a 
criminal neglect of our brother's soul. 

It is very wrong to suppose that by Christian 
exhortation, remonstrance, or advice, we are guilty 
of forwardness, presumption or intermeddling. We 
may err in the temper, or manner, but, if the 
duty be rightly performed, we do right, and may 
confidently commit the result to God ; nor shall we 
ordinarily fail of winning the esteem, if not the 
gratitude, of those we exhort, for such friendly 



THE PENITENT. 251 

care will bear, in the judgment of any considerate 
person, the evidence of regard, as well as fidelity. 
Thus the Wisdom says : ** Rebuke a wise man, 
and he will love thee" (Prov. ix. 8.); and David 
invited the righteous to smite him as a kindness, 
and to reprove him, as an excellent oil, which would 
not break his head (Ps. cxli. 5.). There is not one 
instance of a Christian's taking affront at an 
honest counsel offered to him by a fellow Chris- 
tian at his side, for a thousand of his being sorely 
hurt by fault-finding behind his back, or public 
assaults upon his character; and, although the 
Wisdom says, also, that a scorner will hate an 
honest censor, yet in his heart the greatest scoffer 
must own the genuine kindness of the intention. 
Impenitent men expect it at our hands, nay, are 
surprised if we do not address them on the value of 
religion; and, though they may fly out into anger, 
it is rather at the truth than at us ; but, even if 
we do meet with rebuff, it is no more than the 
apostles and prophets, and even Christ our divine 
Lord, *' who endured the contradiction of sinners 



252 THE EXHOHTATION OF 

against himself,'' met with; and the object is 
well worth the risk. We show but little sense 
of Christ's value, and but little regard for immortal 
men, if, having ourselves tasted and seen that the 
Lord is good (Ps. xxxiv. 8.), we are not anxious to 
tell them what the Lord hath done for our souls 
(Ps. Ixvi. 17.). Nay, it is no small part of God's 
purpose in converting us, that we should be made 
useful in converting others ; thus David, in the 
penitential psalm (li. 12, 13.), prays and resolves: 
'' Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and 
uphold me with thy free Spirit ; then will I teach 
transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be 
converted unto thee." Nor will opportunity be 
wanting. A man who has an enthusiasm upon 
any subject, is scarcely ever at a loss to bring it in 
the conversation, and his frank earnestness easily 
overcomes slight obstacles. So should a Chris- 
tian be full of Christ, and, if he be, out of the 
fulness of his heart his mouth will speak ; when 
sitting in the house, or walking by the way, in a 
crowd, or with a single companion. The Master 



THE PENITENT. 253 

talked of nothing else but salvation, the danger of 
missing it, the wisdom of securing it, the advan- 
tage of having it; and the more we are like him, 
the more like his will be our talk. 

2. This way of attempting good is well 
adapted to success. Every man has felt the 
power of honest rebuke or friendly expostula- 
tion, when given face to face. A Christian may 
have fallen into an error of opinion or practice, 
which he is not aware of, or at least not to a 
proper extent, and hence he goes on care- 
lessly without self-reproach in sin, or loses the 
comfort and advantage he might have from truth. 
Then, if a kind friend tell him of his fault, it is 
like a mirror held before his face; he sees the 
deformity of his conduct; his conscience, stimu- 
lated by the external application, recovers its 
tone; he goes away to think, and, though, it may 
be, irritated at first, he considers more and more 
in solitude, or at his devotions, or when awake at 
night; nor can he can shake off the impression 
until he is convinced of his wrong, even if he 



254 THE EXHORTATION OF 

does not forsake it, and respects the truth of his 
adviser, though he may not confess it. 

Each Christian is liable to his peculiar besetting 
sins, or doubts, or difficulties in the divine life, and 
these vary from education, temperament, or cir- 
cumstances. One is better informed on this 
point, another on that; and thus each may see 
in his brother what needs to be corrected, while 
he needs his brother's eyes to discover his own 
hidden trouble. Each has his own peculiar his- 
tory, and one may be in great perplexity from 
not knowing what the other has long since found 
out by experience; and a kind sympathizing word 
of counsel will come to him like a revelation 
from heaven. Each, also, has his peculiar stu- 
dies of the divine Word, one learning what the 
other has not, and not having learned what the 
other has ; each is, therefore, able to teach the 
other, and a combination of their individual know- 
ledge, by a free exchange of thought respecting 
divine things, will be to the advantage of both. 
This common stock of grace is the profit de- 



# THE PENITENT. 255 

rived from a communion of saints. As the early 
Christians held their worldly goods ready for the 
use of those who had need, so should penitent 
souls share freely their spiritual riches ; and this 
cannot be done without a pious interchange of 
sentiments and counsel. Besides, such mutual 
exhortation is a great stimulant to activity. It 
proves to each that he is not alone, but that there 
are others sympathizing with him, and labouring 
for the same end ; thus provoking emulation and 
inciting courage, as when workmen, at a moment 
requiring their highest exertions, call aloud to 
each other, or soldiers in battle make the air 
resound with cheers. We all can do more when 
acting under a general impulse, than when work- 
ing alone, because we kindle with the warmth of 
each other's zeal, and are drawn on by each other's 
example. In our strife against the vrorld, the flesh, 
and the devil, our arduous duty of urging up the 
cause of Christ against the declivity of human 
corruption, we need all the encouragement we can 
get, and nothing, except the promise of God, or 



256 THE EXHORTATION OF ^ 

the Spirit within us, is more animatijig, than the 
voices of our brethren exhorting us to put forth 
our strength with theirs, and promising their 
strength to ours. Therefore should we be always 
ready with the thought and exclamation of our 
text: ''Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the 
Lord there is mercy ; and with him there is plen- 
teous redemption. And he shall redeem Israel 
from all his iniquities." 

So also will the penitent exhort those who are 
yet out of Christ. He knows the danger they are 
in; for he was himself in the same depths. He 
knows the way of escape from it ; for Christ has 
set his feet on the rock of promise. He antici- 
pates the blessedness of heaven, and would fain 
carry them with him there. All the arguments of 
human friendship and of divine love, all the terrors 
of eternal woe, and attractions of eternal glory, urge 
him to converse with and entreat sinners around 
him to fly, as he has fled, from the wrath to come, 
and find refuge, as he has found, in the forgiveness 
which is with God. How can he dwell under the 



THE PENITENT. 257 

same roof, meet in the same church, exchange cour- 
teous greetings, or walk side by side with those on 
whom the wrath of God is resting, and not speak 
aloud the anxiety of his heart? He can talk with 
them of business, or pleasure, or science, or poli- 
tics ; how much more should he talk of God and 
Christ, of death and the judgment, of heaven and 
of hell ? In the same degree that he is penitent 
himself, will he urge others to i*epentance ; and 
there is no surer sign of indifference to our own 
salvation, than a want of sensibility, and corres- 
pondent zeal, for the conversion of others. 

3. Our success in this duty depends, under 
God, upon the spirit and manner in which it is 
performed. The manner will be so regulated by 
the spirit, that they need not be treated of sepa- 
rately, in laying down a few rules for our govern- 
ment when exhorting others by our words. 

We should be kind. It is the good of our 
fellow men that we seek ; their persuasion from 
what is hurtful to that which will advance the 



258 THE EXHORTATION OF 

good of their souls. When such Christ-like affec- 
tion moves us, it will show itself in our counte- 
nance, our spirit and our carriage. They will 
see it at once, and, at least in their secret hearts, 
give us credit for good wishes. Bluff, angry 
language, or a dictatorial, fault-finding manner, 
will rouse them to resistance, or turn them away 
in disgust, however true what we say may be; 
and, on the other hand, the smoothest, most oily 
words will not hide an improper, or counterfeit a 
good temper, but render them more indignant at 
the deceit. We cannot expect to be regarded as 
friends, if we appear like enemies or traitors. 
Such was not the manner of Him, who was meek 
and lowly of heart, who wept over the sinners 
whom He could not save, and prayed for his mur- 
derers on the cross ; nor was it the manner of his 
apostles, who persuaded men to be reconciled to 
Christ (2 Cor. v. 7.), and wept while speaking of 
those who were enemies to the cross of Christ 
(Phil. iii. 18.). We are not judges of our fellow 



THE PENITENT. 259 

men, but their fellow sinners, saved, if saved, 
sanctified, if sanctified, by the same free grace of 
which we would have them to be partakers ; and, 
therefore, we should be humble while we are 
earnest, and meek while we are faithful, and 
gentle while we are importunate. Surely, if God 
remembers our infirmities, if the holy Jesus was so 
patient even when " his own received him not," if 
the Holy Spirit is so long suffering, though sorely 
grieved, it ill becomes us to quarrel with and fret 
at our fellow sinners, for the very sins we are 
liable to and have been guilty of, and from which, 
if sincere, we desire to save them. If my brother 
in his rude rashness, strike so hard as to break 
my head, I can scarcely think that he has poured 
out an excellent oil upon me, or wish for a repeti- 
tion of the blow ; the natural impulse would be to 
return it; or, should grace restrain nature, to get 
out of his reach. We must show in our exhorta- 
tions to duty, our readiness to join in what we 
recommend, asking his assistance to glorify God, 



260 THE EXHORTATION OF 

while we pledge him ours. Like a good captain, 
though without assuming any such rank, we must 
say, "Come!" not ''Go!" 

Our exhortations should he wisely considered. 
We ought not to enter upon so difficult and deli- 
cate a duty without forethought and prayer, that 
we may be guided by God's word and Christ's 
Spirit. It is not our judgment which we are to 
give our fellow-sinners, but that of God ; and we 
should ask them to receive our advice only upon 
the authority of Him "whose we are and whom 
we serve." We must consider the temperament 
of him to whom we would speak, and gain upon 
him by gradual advances, not startling vehe- 
mence. A physician of the body would adapt 
his remedies to the constitution of his patient: 
why should not we, who seek to medicine the 
soul? We must consider the time; not pressing 
upon our brother, when his attention is neces- 
sarily distracted, but if possible, when his ears 
and heart are prepared to listen with some calm- 



THE PENITENT, 261 

ness ; nor, except in rare cases, or on occasions 
manifestly requiring it, before others, for that is 
an impertinent parade of his faults and our zeal, 
likely to provoke his resentment. There is great 
wisdom in the scriptural rule, to tell another of 
his errors in private, ^' between him and thee.^^ 
An honest courage will speak with the sinner 
alone, and not require the countenance of others. 

Our exhortations should he very earnest. Our 
faithfulness to God should make us bold ; our 
zeal for our fellow-sinner should make us deter- 
mined, and justice to ourselves should make us 
frank. Reserve, concealment, cunning, are worse 
than useless; they deceive; and thus, being gene- 
rally seen through, defeat our purpose, by destroy- 
ing our influence. Next to meekness, frankness 
is the best virtue of a Christian when engaged in 
doing good. It is a matter of the highest con- 
cern that we speak of, the health of our fellow- 
sinner's soul, his usefulness to the world, and the 
glory of the Master; and, in such a case, not 



262 THE EXHORTATION OF 

to be earnest is not to be sincere. Our bro- 
ther will respect us the more from seeing us 
bent upon his good, and the good of Christ's 
cause. Besides, as the writer of the epistle to 
the Hebrews says, we are to '' exhort one an- 
other daily ^ while it is called to-day;'''^ and our 
exhortations will show their sincerity by their 
frequency; since every day brings fresh reason for 
urgency, and we have not a moment to lose, when 
there is so much to be done, so few to do it, the 
time so short to do it in, and that time so uncer- 
tain. To-morrow our tongues may be silent, or 
the ear of our fellow-sinner cold in the grave. 
To-day, is the only time of which we are sure ; 
let us then crowd it with the most strenuous 
efforts to save the souls of all we can from the 
fires of eternal ruin. 

" Great God ! on what a feeble thread 
Hang everlasting things !" 

Such is the exhortation of the true penitent to 
his fellow-men. Such, my reader, be yours; and 



THE PENITENT, 263 

when the day comes in which the author of this 
book, and those who read its simple but honest 
pages, must stand before God, to render our ac- 
count, may each of us be permitted to present 
many souls, won by our instrumentality for the 
glory of Him, who has bought us with his own 
blood, that we might be his own peculiar people, 
zealous in good works, and especially the best 
work of all, the recommendation of His gospel to 
our fellow-men, by open profession, a consistent 
life, and a godly conversation. Amen ! 



We have nearly reached the last page of our 
little work, having led you with the penitent from 
the depths of guilt, through conviction of sin, 
prayer for divine pardon, trust in the divine for- 
giveness, and expectation of divine favour, to the 
duties of a Christian life. Suffer a parting coun- 
sel : — Let us all resolve to seek first the kingdom 
of God; first in time, first in earnestness; the 



264 EXHORTATION OF THE PENITENT. 

kingdom of God in our own hearts, in the hearts 
of those we love, in the hearts of the world ; and 
all we need for this life or the life to come, shall 
be added unto us. 

Let THE PEOPLE PRAISE THEE, GoD ; LET 
ALL THE PEOPLE PRAISE THEE. ThEN SHALL 
THE EARTH YIELD HER INCREASE. GoD SHALL 
BLESS US, AND ALL THE ENDS OF THE EARTH 
SHALL FEAR HIM ! 



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